100 years after Babylonian exile – during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah
Story set in Susa, the Persial Capital
– modern day Iran
Main characters: Esther
(Hadassah, her Hebrew name)
Mordecai, the cousin
King Ahaserus of Persia
Haman, the evil interloper
The story opens with a big party or
banquet feast.
King Ahaserus: “I am the
great King of Persia – everybody loves me, I can have or do
anything I want because I am King. I am good looking, smart and wise.
Doesn't everyone agree?”
The party goers: “Yes, of
course my King. You are handsome, smart and wise. There is none like
you in all the world.”
King Ahaserus: “I am so
wonderful. I have the most beautiful wife in all the land. Bring me
Queen Vashti!”
But Queen Vashti will not come – she
knows the King is drunk and only wants to brag about her beauty and
parade her in front of all the party goers, just to make himself look
good.
King Ahaserus: “What do you
mean she won't come? I am the King! I demand that she come! If she
does not come then she will be banished from my sight – she will be
exiled out of this land – I willfind another Queen!”
So, King Ahaserus holds a sorty of
“beauty pageant” to look for a beautiful young queen that will
once again make him look good.
Cousin Mordecai: “Hadassah,
the King is looking for a new queen – he wants only the purest
girls – you must hide yourself and if you are discovered, never let
the Babylonians know you are a Jew or that you name is Hadassah. You
must be known as Esther if you enter the King's court.”
So it is that Hadassah/Esther is taken
with the other young girls in the land.
King Ahaserus: “Look at all
these beautiful young ladies. But that one over there, yes, that one,
bring her to me! Yes, this beautiful young lady will be my Queen.”
Thus, King Ahaserus and Esther are
united in matrimony.
As it happens, the Lord has placed
Esther's cousin Mordecai in a unique position in the Persian Palace.
He is in the King's court as one of the Kings scribes. As he is in
and out of the palace he overhears a plot to kill the King!
Mordecai: “Esther, I have
overheard a plot to kill the King. You must tell him this and he will
be spared being murdered by poision!”
Haman the Agagite (a descendant
of the Canaanites that had troubled Israel for a long time 1 Sam 25)
“I am Chief Advisor to the King. I answer to no one but the
King. Everyone but the King must bow to me!”
But Mordecai refuses to bow whenever
Haman passes by. You see, Mordecai knows that he should bow to only
One, that is the God of the Jews. This so infuriates Haman that he
begins to think of a way to get rid of Mordecai.
Haman: “That lousy, pompous
old Jew! Why won't he bow to me? Doesn't he know who I am. I am
second only to the King? I could have him killed if I wish. But
then I would never see him bow to me. I will make him pay. I know,
I'll destroy the Jews because if this one man won't bow, the others
might not bow either and I'll never have control over these people!”
So Haman drafts a decree or law to
destroy all the Jews and persuades the King to sign it. Unknown to
Haman, he has decreed that the King's own wife, Esther is to be
killed.
Since Esther/Hadassha, has not yet
revealed her heritage, what is to be done? Based on a “roll of the
dice” for the day of the event, the Jews are scheduled for
execution about a year from the date wicked Haman had this law
signed.
Esther and Mordecai realize that she
must now reveal her true identity as a Jew to the King. But to
approach the King unsummoned is to die.
Esther: “Cousin Mordecai,
how am I to go unsummoned to the King? You know it is forbidden and I
could lose my life for this act.”
Mordecai: “My dearest
Hadassah, maybe you have come into the Kings palace for just such a
time as this.”
Esther: “Cousin Mordecai,
yes, it is dangerous and yes, I could lose my life. But in my heart
I am determined that “if I perish, I perish, but I must try.” I
will make a feast and invite my King and Haman and tell of my
petition to spare my people. It is then that I will make my heritage
known.”
After learning of being invited to a
banquet given by the Queen, Haman proudly struts home to tell his
family. On the way home, once again, he encounters that insolent old
Jew, Mordecai, who will not bow to him. It makes him so made he
orders a gallows built to hang Mordecai. One way or another, this
Jew must die!
But one night before the Queen's
banquet, the King has trouble sleeping. He orders that the
records/chronicles be read to him. While listening to the
records/chronicles being read, the King zeroes in on the story of his
scribe, Mordecai and how he stopped a plot to kill the King. The
next day he looks to his right hand mane, Haman, to give him counsel.
King Ahaserus: “Haman,
there is a man I understand has done a great service for the King.
What should be done for a man in whom the King delighteth to honor?”
Haman: “If I please the
King, let a royal robe be brought, a horse from the King's own stable
for the man to ride and a crown be put on the man's head and let this
man ride through the streets being led by one saying 'this is the man
in whom the King delighteth to honor.'”
King Ahaserus: “So it is
written, so it is done. Haman gather all this and give and for
Mordecai, the scribe and say 'this is the man in whom the King
delighteth to honor.'”
So, Haman had to do that for Mordecai!
Haman had to parade the streets with
Mordecai in the Kings robe, a crown and the Kings horse under him and
say “a man in whom the King delighteth to honor,” to the old Jew
who would not bow to him! Boy was he not a little upset!
Back to the Queen's banquet:
King Ahaserus: “Esther, my
Queen, what a deligthful feast. Now, what is it you wish to ask me?”
Remember, Haman is at this banquet too!
Esther: “If I have found
favor in thy sight, O King, and if it please the King, let my life be
given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold,
I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish.”
(7.3,4)
King Ahaserus: “Who is he,
and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”
Esther: “The adversary and
enemy this wicked Haman.”
And the King arising from the banquet –
realizing the entire matter...had Haman hanged on the gallows that he
had built for Mordecai. (7.7-10)
Esther: “If it please the
King, and if I have found favor in his sight...let the decree written
by Haman for the destruction of the Jews, be reversed.” (8.5)
So it was written, so it was done.
Because of Divine Providence in putting
an exiled people in the the King's household, an ENTIRE race of
people, the Jews were spared.
- How would you feel if you had to be taken from your home to live among strangers who did not believe as you did?
- Would you remain true to your beliefs or conform to riducule?
- Did you know that God is not mentioned once in the book of Esther?
- Do you believe He ordained events to preserve a race of people?
- How do you know thing? Was it mere coincidence that placed Esther in the kings palace?
- Is it coincidence or Divine Providence, that orders events in your life?
- Who was the intercessor or guide in this story? Who gave Esther direction? (Mordecai)
- Who is our intercessor or go between in talking with God? (Jesus)
- Who was the mountpiece for Mordecai? (Esther)
- Who speaks for the intercessor to God? Who speaks for Jesus from the pulpit? (preacher)
- Who, in the story, is a type of the Lord Jesus as intercessor? (Mordecai)
- Who is witness of what goes on in the King's house? (Esther)
- Who is to be a witness for the Lord Jesus? (believers/christians)
- If you don't know the King, the Lord Jesus, how can you testify of Him?
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