Providence–Book of Esther #3 : “Down & Dirty” ~ Esther 3:1-4:17

Providence, Part 3

“Down and Dirty”

Insights From the Book of Esther

Bruce A. Hess

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If you would, please take out the word of God and turn in it to the book of Esther, which is in the Old Testament. If you sort of just grab your Old Testament section in your Bible and you come to the middle part of that, you will be pretty close to the book of Esther.

Now, I can just say, this has been true in my own life, and no doubt it has also been true in your life, it is certainly true that, even though we know God and we have walked with God for years, there are times in our life when we feel like God is invisible. That is especially true when we are facing deeply difficult times. Maybe it has been a frightening diagnosis that has come our way that includes that terrible word, ‘cancer,’ I’ve been there, more than once. Maybe our spouse has been taken, maybe we have lost a child, maybe there has been pain and heartache in our life, maybe we’ve been a victim of severe mistreatment, maybe it’s just that we feel like right now everything seems to be going against me. When those things happen in our life, we will often feel confused and disoriented, isn’t that true? And, if we are really going to be honest, we would admit that at times we feel like what is happening to me seems random, it seems pointless and at times we even begin to doubt God’s love.

So, when we are facing those kinds of eras in our life, we need to remember and we need to embrace the truth of God’s providence, because when we embrace that, it breeds in our inner being, trust and peace and assurance, assurance that God is still in control, that God has a reason for this, that God has a plan.

A few weeks ago we began a series of messages I have entitled, ‘Providence, Insights from the book of Esther.’ As we have been going through this series, I have been sharing a number of definitions of providence from various theologians. I want to share one this morning from Lewis Sperry Chafer, who was the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary. He said this, ‘Providence is the execution in all its details of the divine program of the ages.’

As we’ve been talking about providence, we have said that providence is God who is behind the SEEN, s-e-e-n! And, we have been saying that providence is His superintendence of all that happens in life. All that happens remains within God’s control and divine purpose.

We’ve been also using, as a guide in our study of Esther, that delicious verse from I Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 11, when it says, “What happened to them” in the Old Testament, which would include Esther, “happened as examples for us and was written for our instruction.” So, there are things that God wants us to learn by going backward in time to the book of Esther.

I’ve titled today’s message, ‘Down and Dirty.’ It deals with chapter 3 and chapter 4 of Esther. Here is the outline that I have for the section we are going to be looking at.

  • We are going to be looking at Haman’s clash with Mordecai in chapter 3, verses 1-5.
  •  Then, we are going to look at Haman’s vicious plot in chapter 3, verses 6-15.
  • We are going to look at the crushing prospect of the plot in the first four verses of chapter 4.
  • And, then, we are going to see Esther and Mordecai having this emotional dialogue back and forth in chapter 4:5-17 and it comes in four different rounds, this little dialogue they have back and forth.

So, that’s where we are going to go. Let’s get started. Let’s look at Haman’s clash with Mordecai in verses 1-5. Now, remember, we haven’t yet fully been introduced to him, but Haman is Snidely Whiplash in this melodrama. He is the villain. What happens to him, in chapter 3, and verse 1, is he is promoted by the King. He is advanced and he is given authority over all the princes of the country. In other words, Haman becomes the Chief Administrator, or in other terms, he becomes the Prime Minister of the kingdom.

Now, why does that happen? Well, we’re not given a reason for it. We do know, by studying Haman we are going to see some of this today, Haman was a very smooth operator [a skillful, highly manipulative person]. Haman was a manipulator and Haman was extremely wealthy. So, we just have to surmise somehow, using all those Snidely Whiplash attributes, he gets appointed as the Prime Minister of the country. As we note that in verse 1, there are some words in verse 1 that are very easy to skip over. Some words in verse 1 that at a glance appear to be completely insignificant, almost throw away words, but they’re not, actually.

Notice it says in verse 1, “King Ahasuerus promoted Haman,” here comes those words, “the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority.” The Agagite, that is who Haman was.

We know that in the kingdom of Media there was an area called Agag. So, it is possible that all this was saying is, he came from that particular area. But, I don’t really think that is the best way to understand this. In fact, what is interesting is, as individuals are introduced to us in this book, there are only two people who get genealogies thrown out. You might remember from over in chapter 2, the first one is Mordecai. Mordecai, we learn, was a Benjamite, one of the tribes of Israel. He was an Israelite. Now we have the introduction of Haman and Haman is an Agagite, which would mean that he was an Amalekite and that becomes highly significant. Because, you see, there was this ongoing, ancient feud that had been going on for 900 years between the Israelites and the Amalekites. It all goes back to the time of the Exodus.

You remember when the Jews were coming out of Egypt and they were wondering in the wilderness and we learn from Deuteronomy 25, verse 17, that the Amalekites attacked the Jews when they had just come out of Egypt. But, they didn’t just attack them, they attacked them from the rear. They attacked those who were at the rear of the group, the stragglers, the sick, the old women, and the children. So, that really offended not only the Jews, but it offended God.

We learn in I Samuel, chapter 15, that God ordered King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites, get rid of all of them. King Saul, and his military, does rout the Amalekites, but he doesn’t get rid of all of them. In fact, their king, whose name was, listen to this, Agag, he kept alive. Saul is confronted by Samuel, on the part of the Lord, and Agag is later killed by Samuel, but this animosity that existed, you know, you’re going to attack all of our weak and our sickly, and our old, and then okay, now God says ‘I’m going to wipe all of you out for the way that you are.’

And, years later on, in I Samuel, chapter 30, you have King David and his men and guess what? They get raided by the Amalekites, back and forth, back and forth they go. These people groups remained in conflict over time.

Now, some commentators would say, ‘Well, it is kind of unlikely that you could really take Haman and identify him as being in the line of the Amalekites,’ but to me it seems pretty clear, there are only two genealogies discussed. You have the Israelite and you have the Agagite, or the Amalekite and they are displaying deep, deep feelings toward one another, even at this time. Some have suggested that the term, Agagite, is a slang term for someone who is anti-Jew and anti-Semite.

So, with all that in mind, look at verse 2, “All the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman,” but the end of the verse said, “But Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage.” When it is talking about bowing down to someone here, it is not talking about necessarily worshipping them. The idea was to show honor to him, so when the Prime Minister came by most people were bowing down. Mordecai said, ‘Not going to do it.’

To me it is very clear that Mordecai knew who Haman was and he knew what Haman stood for. It would be very much like a German Jew in the 1940’s if an SS officer walked into the room and everyone said, ‘We should stand and honor him,’ they would go, ‘I don’t want to do that. Not for that guy.’

We learn in verse 4 that some of the people around Mordecai were concerned about him so every day they were saying, ‘Really? Are you going to do this? Are you not going to bow down before Haman and show him honor?’ Ultimately, he let on to them that he was a Jew.

Well, how does Haman respond to all this? In verse 5 it says that “Haman, when he saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, Haman was filled with rage.” The same exact terminology used in chapter 1 when the King was enraged that Queen Vashti wouldn’t come to the party. Just as we saw in chapter 1, rather than, ‘Well, she didn’t come so I’m going to be enraged,’ there was more to the story. As we saw there was a lot of dysfunction going on in the palace. The same thing is true here. You know, the rage because one guy wouldn’t bow down to you? There is just more to the story. Do you see what is working here?

Haman is seething with rage, not just about Mordecai, but about the Jews. Which leads us to Haman’s vicious plot in chapter 3, verses 6-15. Look at verse 6. “Haman disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were,” he didn’t know before that, “therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.” He had an incredible hatred for the Jews and we learn actually, later on in the book, he wasn’t alone. Because, in chapter 9, verse 16, it says there were 75,000 people in the kingdom who hated the Jews. Not everyone, but a large group.

So, Haman finds out what’s going on with Mordecai and he sees here, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can do something I’ve always fantasized about. I can get rid of all the Jews. I can wipe all of them out.’ Now, Satan was ultimately behind this, but Haman goes, ‘This is my golden, golden opportunity.’

By the way, when you look at Haman, he is a personification of what is described in Proverbs, chapter 6, verses 16-19. It says there, “There a six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven that are an abomination to Him.” As you go through these seven things, all of them are practiced by Haman. “Seven things which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes (that’s being highly proud), a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness (this would be more in a governmental fashion) who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.” Seven things God hates, all personified by Snidely Whiplash, Haman, himself.

In verse 7, of chapter 3, something unusual happens to us in our culture, but in the first month of a year what they would do in that culture is, they would annually cast lots. They were maybe marked stones or sticks or clay cubes. What they would be doing is, they would be consulting their astrological gods and basically saying, ‘There are some events that need to happen this year, which day is the best day for that to happen?’ So, they would have a whole series of events. But, Haman is directly involved because he wants to know what is the ideal day to exterminate all of the Jews. This happens in the first month. In God’s providence, the lots reveal that it would be in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, in which would be the best, this is what the astrological gods were communicating, but God’s providence said it’s going to be the twelfth month. In other words, eleven months from now, which gives an opportunity for the Jews to have a response to all of this.

Now, in verse 8 he goes before the King. Remember, Haman is a manipulator. Ahasuerus, or Xerxes, as he is known with his Greek name, is very influenceable, he was just that kind of guy. What people would tell him is what he would often just do. In verse 8 he goes before the King and I want you to notice there is going to be no mention of Mordecai, there is no mention of Haman’s personal affront by Mordecai, there is no mention of a personal vendetta against the Jews. None of that comes up.

In verse 8, here is what he says, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom.” There’s just certain people, he is trying to slide by, he doesn’t want to say that it’s the Jews that he is talking about. Why is it he wants to avoid that? Well, probably one reason why is, that Cyrus and Darius, who were Ahasuerus’ immediate predecessors in the kingdom were both very favorable and kind to the Jews. Remember, they were the ones who helped the Jews go back into their land. So, he doesn’t want to counter his predecessors at all, so he says, ‘It’s just these certain people. And these people have laws that are different than our laws.’ That was a true statement. But, he says, “They do not observe the king’s laws.” That was really an untrue statement because God had been very clear in Jeremiah 29:7, He said to those who would be exiled, ‘I want you to be good citizens when you go to these various lands.’

Here is what he is implying to the King, he says, ‘These people, these certain people that are out there, and they are everywhere in all these different provinces, they are troublemakers. They are an insidious threat to you, King. Here is what I think we need to do.’ Verse 9, ‘We need to levy a decree to destroy them.’ Remember, we are going to see this play out. When you would make a law and a decree in the Medo-Persian Empire it could never be revoked. He says, ‘Here is what we need to do, we need to have a decree to destroy them and in order to kind of convince you of how wise I really think this is, King, what I am going to do,’ this is verse 9, ‘I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the royal treasury.’

Now, the treasury, the royal treasury, was somewhat depleted at this time due to the failed invasion of Greece. Remember that from last time. He says, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you ten thousand talents of silver if we can go ahead and do this decree.’ When we hear that term, ten thousand talents of silver, what does that mean to us in our culture? I mean, what is that? A talent weighed seventy five pounds or thirty five kilograms so if you take and multiply all this out, seventy five pounds of one talent of silver and multiply it times ten thousand it comes out to a figure in our dollars, in our day, of something like two hundred million dollars. Now, Haman was a wealthy guy. He was somewhat like an NBA or a NFL team owner. You want a contract for ninety million dollars? Sure! I’ll write that out for you. Plenty of money there. And, he says, ‘I will give ten thousand talents.’

Sounds good to Ahasuerus, he is easily influenceable. So, verse 10, he hands his signet ring to Haman, which was giving the King’s full authority. You could seal any document with that, basically giving him carte blanche. It is interesting how this is repeated again in verse 10, it said, “The king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman,” who is Haman? “The son of Hammedatha, the Agagite.” So, we see again, it’s just emphasizing this little thing that is working between the Amalekites and the Israelites.

When you look at verse 11 it almost sounds, in some versions, like Ahasuerus turns aside the money. He said, ‘I don’t really want the money.’ But, that verse can be translated where the King is saying back to Haman, “the silver is yours,” in other words, ‘Hey, it’s your money, dude, if you want to spend it that way, that’s fine.’  We know from chapter 4, and verse 7, he clearly made a promise to the King to pay this amount of money to the royal treasury.

Now, pause for just a moment. Do you see the irony in all of this? Especially from the King’s perspective? The one who had single handedly saved the life of the King, who is Mordecai. Remember, who heard about the murder plot and then told it to Esther, and Esther related it to the King and then it was investigated and those guys were executed. The one who single handedly saved the life of the King is now being condemned to be executed along with all of the Jews.

In verses 12-15 of the chapter the word has to go out. Remember, they have all these provinces that are out there and remember they use, basically, a Pony Express to do that. You know, the Pony Express in America is an interesting thing. They would actually run mail from St. Louis to San Francisco, 2100 miles. The Pony Express we had only actually, this is a kind of interesting fact, only lasted a year and a half in the United States, from 1860-1861. Very interesting. I found out not too many years ago that I actually had a relative who was a Pony Express rider.

Well, that’s the way that they get the word out. This decision, this law that is written, is written on the thirteenth day of that first month. The very next day, after this death notice is signed, would have been the first day of the Passover, where God delivered Israel from Egypt. Almost a little hint here of what God is getting ready to do.

Verse 15 says when this thing goes out and the word starts to get out, that the city of Susa, the capital city, was in confusion. Why is that? Because to many of the regular people, the Jews were good citizens. ‘Why are we going to kill all these people? I don’t understand.’

Which leads us then, to this crushing prospect of the plot, in the first four verses of chapter four. Verse 1, “When Mordecai learned all that had been done,” how does he respond? “He tore his clothes.” Now, remember, people in that day were very different from us, we often will have a number of clothes items in our closet. Well, most people weren’t like that. They would have one set of clothes for everyday use and one set of clothes for dress use.

He hears this and he rips his clothes apart. What does that really signify? It is a way of saying, ‘This tears me up!’ It is a way of expressing deep grief. Then, he puts on sackcloth and ashes. Sackcloth was a very coarse cloak and he would throw ashes on himself and then he began to wail loudly. Now, that sounds, to Americans, to be an odd thing because, mostly in our culture we don’t do that. But, that is a Middle Eastern way of expressing incredible grief. You would usually wail loudly at a death and this is anticipating death.

Not only does he respond that way, but there is “Great mourning,” verse 3, “among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing,” expressing their deep grief in face of this grave threat that is coming upon them.

What is interesting, with all that crushing reaction, we find out that Esther hadn’t heard about this yet, which leads us to Esther and Mordecai’s emotional dialogue in verses 5-17. Round one of that dialogue occurs in verses 5-9. As we look at this, just remember what we have been pointing out previously. The Queen was sequestered in the royal area. She was protected there. There’s no cell phones, there’s no texting, there’s no email. Since she is off sequestered, you can’t just walk in and talk to her. Remember, we talked about the protection, didn’t want men coming around the Queen.

So, she finds out what is happening, the word comes to her, about what Mordecai is doing. She doesn’t know what is going on. So, in verses 5 and 6, she takes one of these eunuchs, one of these men who’d had sexual surgery, who are guarding her, whose name was Hathach, and says, ‘Go find out from Mordecai what in the world is going on.’ He goes to Mordecai, who is in the city square and “Mordecai tells Hathach all that happened to him, the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave to Hathach a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their destruction.”

This, again, tells us a little more, remember we talked about Mordecai being a city official or a lower court judge. There were no copy machines. He got an opportunity to get ahold of one of these copies of the edict. He goes, take this back, “Show Esther, inform her and order her to go into the king to implore his favor and to plead with him for her people.” Remember, before this Mordecai had said, ‘Keep quiet that you are a Jew.’ Knowing part of the atmosphere of the kingdom towards the Jews, you can understand it. But, now he is saying to her, ‘Esther, it is time to go public. It is time to let them know that you are a Jew.’

Round two of the conversation occurs in verses 10-12. Basically, in verse 11 she says, ‘Wait a second here, Mordecai. If I approach the King uninvited I could be executed for that.’ Because that is the way that they set it up. A King was really King, he could set it up, if anyone tried to interrupt him when he didn’t want to be interrupted, he could have them executed. She says, ‘I could be killed by trying to go in to talk to him when I haven’t been invited to do that.’ She adds, ‘I have not seen him for thirty days.’ Apparently the King had cooled a little on Esther and it add been a whole month and she hadn’t even talked to him.

As you look at Esther at this point, it seems like she doesn’t have any grasp on the providence of God, but the truth of the matter was that, she was where she was by the goodness and grace of God. By the way, there is a good principle, I think here, for all of us. That is that the position that we have in life, the blessings that we have in life, the opportunities we have in life, they’re not just for me to enjoy. The design in God giving position and blessings and opportunity is, that we might utilize them to help and minister to others.

Well, round three of the conversation occurs in verses 13 and 14. “Then Mordecai,” verse 13, says, ‘Well, send this back to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews .For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

You remember that Mordecai is her step-father and this is a father calling his daughter up. And, he says, ‘Wait a minute, don’t forget your head is on the chopping block [idiom for being in great danger personally], too. Then, he makes this interesting statement in verse 14. Even though there’s not a lot of talk about God openly, he says, ‘If you don’t do it Esther, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from some other place.’ That is an expression of a belief in the providence of God and that He would honor God’s promises to the Jews. Remember, He said, ‘I will preserve you.’ And, that is the line through which the Messiah would come. He adds, ‘Who knows, I mean, who knows, whether your ascendency is just a mark of God’s providence.’

You know, I don’t know if you think about this from time to time, I think about these things and ponder them in my head, God works through people. I mean, think about that. That is a startling truth, isn’t it? I mean, look at me and look at you. God works through people. What that means is, the job that we have, the resources we’ve been given, the intelligence we’ve been given, the education we have, the health that we have, the gifts and abilities we have, they are not for ourselves. But, they are to help us to point people to Christ. To train others spiritually, to reach people with the message of salvation and to help meet needs. That is why we have all those things.

Well, round number four is in verses 15-17 of this little dialogue that occurs. There is a shift here, because Esther steps up. She moves from hesitation to determination and she sends back, to Mordecai now, a directive from the Queen. And, in verse 16 she says, ‘Here is what I want you to go do. I want you to assemble all the Jews in the city of Susa and tell everyone to fast and I will go in to the King and if I perish, I perish.’ I think this is a real statement on her part, after the shift, of courage. ‘I’m going to step out in faith, I am going to do what’s right, even if it is risky.’

When we seek to follow Christ, there are often unknowns and uncertainties out there. I want to just pause for a moment. Can you feel some of this? Think about your own family and your own friends. You’ve been told the date of your death, eleven months from now. Everybody that you know is going to be wiped out. How would you feel? You’d be thinking, ‘This is so unfair. Is God still in control of this thing? Can God have a plan in the face of all of this?’ Of course, the answer is, yes, because we have a providential flip that is coming in chapters 5, 6, and 7. We’ll be looking at that next time.

But, as we close today, I want to do a little bit of life reflection. I want to just pull back for a moment. Remember, we’ve been saying that providence is His superintendence of all that happens in life. All that happens remains within God’s control and divine purpose.

The thing about providence is, it is often mysterious. It is a little bit like the wind, you know, you can’t really see the wind or touch the wind, but at times, we are able to glimpse the effects of it. When life happens and we find ourselves in that situation where we are confused and we are disoriented, and it just feels random and we are thinking, ‘Where is God? Why is God allowing this in my life?’ And yet, the truth is, that providence is always at work. Even when it is disorienting to us, God desires that we would recognize His providence, that we would rest in His providence, and we would trust Him in the midst of that providence.

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a story from the 1920’s. It is about two couples, David and Svea Flood, and another couple by the name of the Ericksons. Both of them left their homes and went to a remote area of Africa as missionaries. As the Floods and the Ericksons were there, initially they were prohibited from entering the village, by the chief, but the Floods developed a friendship with a young African boy. Svea actually led that boy to trust in Christ.

A number of weeks later, there was an epidemic of malaria that hit the area and the Erickson couple retreated to the central mission station, while the Floods stayed there. Svea gave birth to a daughter, but tragically Svea died a few days later. David Flood, her disillusioned husband, said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to bury my wife here.’ He had a baby daughter, Aina, and he handed Aina over to the Ericksons. ‘You take care of this baby.’ And, he went back to his native Sweden, embittered. ‘Why did God allow this? I was being a missionary, my wife has died, what good can come from that?’ It seemed very pointless and tragic to him.

What is also interesting is that, within a year the Ericksons both died, so baby Aina was without a family and Aina was brought to the United States and adopted and had her name changed to Aggie. Now, many years passed and Aggie grew up. One particular day Aggie came across a Swedish Christian magazine that told the story about Africa. As she was glancing through this magazine, she saw a picture of a grave and the name on the grave was the name of her birth mother, Svea Flood. The story went on to tell that many years ago a white baby was born to missionaries, the young mother died, but before she died she led an African boy to Christ. That African boy grew up and started a school in the village and while having that school, led many of the students of the school to Christ. Many of those students in the school who had trusted Christ led their parents to trust in Christ and eventually the chief, himself, trusted Christ.

As she is reading this, baby Aina Flood, who is now Aggie Hurst, said, ‘You know what? I’ve got to go to Sweden and talk to my elderly birth father, David Flood.’ So, she journeyed to Sweden and she sat him down, he is is now elderly, and she told him about the article and she said to him this, ‘You and mom served the Lord in Africa and I want you to know that today there are 600 Africans serving Christ.’ David, her birth father, was just stunned and even though he had spent much of his life embittered towards God, his heart was suddenly softened and he had a glimpse of the plan and providence of God. A few weeks later David died.

Many years later, Aggie met that particular African boy, who was a man, who by then had become superintendent of a national denomination in Zaire that included 110,000 believers.

See, men and women, what was mysterious, what was confusing, what was heartbreaking, and seemingly pointless, was all within the providential plan of God.

Now, they got a glimpse into the providence of God that maybe we don’t always get, we don’t always know in this life the full why.

Randy Alcorn, in his book, ‘If God is Good,’ shares this story. He says, ‘A friend experienced terrible childhood abuse, date rape, adultery, two divorces and a life that she described as forty three years of hell. Yet, now in her fifties, she has experienced a deep sense of God’s goodness and has a faith that one day she will understand what eludes her now.’

She wrote these words, ‘I think in eternity I will be able to see how God comforted me during those times when I didn’t know it, that God was ever present, weeping with me, angry at those who were victimizing me, working to move me forward toward life, instead of death as Satan wished. I will see how God used it, how God transformed each thing, I see much of that transformation even now.’

See, this friend of Randy Alcorn had experiences in her life that tore her up. And yet, her confidence was deepening in the providence of God. In that, all that happens remains within God’s control and divine purpose. What He wants us to do, is to recognize it, to rest in it and trust Him in the midst of it.

Let’s pray. Father, we just thank You again for this living book. I get so excited even touching it, because it teaches us such practical information. We thank You for the lessons we are learning about Your providence. May we recognize it, may we rest in it, may we trust You in the midst of it, even when we don’t really understand what is happening. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Questions for Reflection

Providence (Esther) – Down and Dirty

Esther 3:1-4:17

1. Think of a time in your life when you faced very difficult circumstances, circumstances that maybe disoriented and overwhelmed you as you faced them.  If you are comfortable, share some about that time.

2. In life when we face times where we can feel God seems invisible and disconnected from us, what biblical truths help to counter those feelings?

3. Do you think Mordecai should have just bowed to Haman?  Why or why not?

4. List some specific ways that Haman personified Proverbs 6:16-19

5. What aspect of God’s providence stood out the most to you in chapters 3 and 4?

6. Bruce stated that God works through people.  Therefore, the job we have, the resources we’ve been given, our gifts and abilities, even our health, are not primarily for ourselves.  God has given them to equip us to point people to Christ, to develop others spiritually, and to help meet needs.

What are some ways right now you can better leverage your God given resources to accomplish those ends?

7. Take some time to pray that God would further train you to recognize, rest in and trust in His sovereign providence in your life.

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