Esther Xerxes crowned king (486 BC) Greeks defeat Xerxes at Salamis (480 BC) Greeks defeat Xerxes at Thermopylae (479 BC) Esther becomes queen (478 BC) Esther saves Jews from destruction (474 BC) Feast of Purim instituted (473 BC) Vashti deposed as queen (482 BC) Esther 4-6 Distressed ~ from a word meaning to twist or writhe Esther 4-6 Relief ~ KJV, enlargement From word meaning spacious or wide (breathe easily) Esther 4-6 Ps. 32 ~ 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah Esther 4-6 Gal. 2 ~ 11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. Esther 4-6 Jer. 25 ~ 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Esther 4-6 The mighty liner of Gods sovereign design keeps its steady course over the sea of history. God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, pg. 118 In the moral conflict now raging around us whoever is on Gods side is on the winning side and cannot lose; whoever is on the other side is on the losing side and cannot win. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, pg. 118 Esther 4-6 Let the king and Haman come ~ is the 2nd acrostic for YHWH Esther 4-6 NIV~ better, rage Esther 4-6 Pr. 16 ~ 18 Pride goes before destruction And an haughty spirit before a fall Esther 4-6 This avails me nothing ~ is the 3rd acrostic for YHWH Esther 4-6 Gallows ~ lit. tree impaling stake Esther Pet. 3 ~ 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.