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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
from his people on account of th eir sins. They had chosen to rem ain in the land of captivity among th e heathen instead of retu rn ing to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel. Nevertheless God had said, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” The same God who watched over th e builders of th e temple and the walls of th e holy city, guarded these Stranger Jews th roughou t the one hun dred and tw enty provinces of th e P er sian empire. “No weapon th a t is form ed against thee shall prosper.” “Behind th e dim unknown, S tandeth God w ithin th e shadow Keeping watch above his own.” A thoughtful perusal of th e first five chapters reveals some interesting con tra sts between th e Jewish and Persian types of character. “There is only one way by which you can ever have the mountains round about your Jerusalem and th a t is by building your Jerusalem where God has already bu ilt th e moun tain s.” E sther, th e Brave Queen. E sther 4 :6 ; 5:3. , Memory Verse.— “ 1 will fear no evil, for thou a rt w ith me.” , Psa. 23:4. Approach.— Show th e children a scepter. A short rod covered w ith gilt paper will answer th e purpose. When any person wanted to ask any favor of an O riental king, BEGINNERS if th e king wished AND PRIMARY to g ran t th e re- Mabel L. M errill quest, he would „ • hold the golden scepter out, and th is m eant -the re quest was granted. Boys and girls, can yow tell me what king holds out his golden scepter of promises to us and invites us to bring our requests to Him? Yes, it is King Jesus, and He is different from any earthly king, for He never tu rn s anyone away th a t comes to Him. Prayer. Lesson Story.— Carl, you tell us
mention of prayer to God but it is im plied in the mourning and fasting among th e Jews in chapter 4:1-3 and 4:16. The lesson is th a t if we really pray for anything we must be ready and w illing to be used to answer our own prayers. The relation of prayer to action makes it a serious th ing and sometimes a dangerous th ing to pray. If one prays for the evangelization of Africa, th e answer to th a t prayer means th e sending of m issionaries to Africa. Is the one who prays w illing to go to Africa as a m issionary? If no t how much is th e prayer worth?:, P ray er is not often enough followed by action so th a t much which goes, by th e name of prayer is a misnomer. The practical teaching of th e book is th e g reat importance of using God- given opportunities. The secret of suc cess in life is to be ready when op po rtun ity comes. We may be tempted to th in k th a t our opportunities are in significant, th a t our circle of influence is very small. If we had a throne and a kingdom like E sther it would be dif ferent. God has a purpose in every life. He has placed us where he can make the best usé of us for his glory. L ike E sther we must be ready to take our life in our hands and risk every th ing in his service. “Who knoweth w hether thou a rt come to th e kingdom for such a tim e as th is?” Another design of the book of E sther is to d esc rib e 'th é origin of th é feast of Purim and to illu strate God’s provi dential care over his people. The feast, annually observed by th e Jews ever since, is strong external evidence of th e historic trustw orthiness of the book and gives a sufficient reason for its in terp retation from th a t view-point. The question is asked in . the Talmud “Where do we get E sth er from the Law "? The answer is cDeüt. 31:18 “And I will surely hide my face or presence.” God was hiding his face
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