Week 26 · about 45 minutes
Esther’s Brave Request
Esther 4–7 · Memory verse Esther 4:14
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Queen Esther), the matching word search and answer key (Esther Speaks Up), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a paper crown
Hold up a paper crown. In about five minutes, tell the class this: Queen Esther risks her comfort to speak up for her people at just the right time. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with Esther’s Brave Request?” Let two children answer. Then read Esther 4:14 together: “For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.
Story script
Esther was a Jewish girl who became queen in Persia. She had not told everyone who her people were. A powerful man named Haman made a wicked plan to destroy the Jews. Esther’s cousin Mordecai sent her a message: do not think the palace will keep you safe if you stay silent. “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther was afraid. Going to the king without being invited could cost her life. She asked her people to fast and pray. Then she said, “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Courage prayed first.
She invited the king and Haman to a feast, and then another. At the right moment she told the truth: “My people have been sold to be destroyed. And I am one of them.” The king listened. Haman’s plan was stopped. A day that was meant for grief became a day of rescue and joy.
You may not wear a crown, but you have a place — a class, a team, a family — where your voice matters. Pray, then speak up for someone who needs a defender. God is very good at “such a time as this.”
Group game
Esther walks to the king's chair, pauses, and speaks up for her people. Let several children try the brave walk and the brave sentence.
Craft
Draw Queen Esther and the words for such a time as this.
Memory verse
Esther 4:14
“For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?””
Take-home prayer
God, if you have placed me here for such a time as this, make me brave and kind. Help me pray and then speak. Amen.