Should Our Rights Guide Us?

In this study we look at the story of Esther and Mordecai and the turn of circumstances that occurred for the Jews and for those who attacked them under Haman's decree. Esther found a way to turn the King against Haman and to petition the King to revoke the decree. But since no decree of the King could be revoked according to Persian law, they had to devise another way to protect the Jews. So, the king permitted Esther and Mordecai to write a new decree in the name of the king. Their decree gave the Jews the legal right to inflict on them all the things which Haman's decree had planned against the Jews. Interestingly, in the portion of Esther that describes what happened when the attack came, it says the Jews killed their attackers, and it specifies that they didn't take their possessions, even though that was part of the decree. So, even though the Jews had a legal right to take the possessions of their attackers, they chose not to exercise that right. This brings us directly to the principle that is the main lesson of our study. Simply stated, the principle is this: Our rights, as important as they are for society, are not a good guide for determining what we as individuals should do.  Join us as we take a look at what rights are all about, and ask, what **should** guide our choices and actions? For more study, please see: "Are You Minding What Matters?" by Trent Wilde, https://www.bdsda.com/are-you-minding-what-matters/?highlight=are%20you%20minding%20what%20matters Sabbath School Q4 2023: God's Mission, My Mission - Week 12, "Esther and Mordecai" A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson. www.bdsda.com