The Author is Unknown, but We Know it Was Written  By A Jew { Some Say That Ezra or Mordecai was the Writer} And the Date of this Book is About 465 BC. The Theme of This Book is Team Work That  Shaped A Nation Now The Book of Esther is A Graphic Narrative,  Which Shows How God’s  People were  preserved  From Ruin During  The 5th Century BC.

This Book Takes it’s Name From The Beautiful , But  Orphaned Jewess, Who Became The Queen Of The Persian King, Ahasureus who is generally Known As King Xerxes, And Lived in The Persian Capital of  Shushan ( Now Known As Iran) At This Time There Were Still A Number of Jews Still Living in Babylon  Under  Persian Rule, Even Though They Had Been Free To Return  To  Jerusalem.

And The Story We Are Going To Look at Takes Place Over A 4 Year Period Starting in The 3rd Year of King Xerxes Reign,

Esther is A Study About The Survival of God’s People, in The  Midst of Hostility.  But when God Gave me this to look at I thought, great, an easy one, Just a story and the main  person being a woman Cool I Thought, but on study it’s quite controversial  As in The Greek and English versions Esther is the last Book in The Collection  of  Historical Books. In The Hebrew Arrangement  of The old Testament ,  The Book is one of the Five ( Rolls of Scrolls) occurring in the 3rd And Final section, and The writings of the Hebrew Bible, and the Books plot includes the origins of the Jewish Festival of Purim , and Esther is traditionally read on this annual  celebration, and the feast of Purim was Instituted to mark  the Deliverance of the  Jewish Nation.

(it is Currently used In connection with other times when the Jewish Nation was almost Wiped Out or there was an attempt to wipe them out, like In the time of Hitler and World War Two.) On deeper study and understanding  of what the Jews believe there are some very close similarities on the circumstances of  what happened in this story and say The 2nd World War , but that is another issue, I won’t be looking at that too Much, but when you get time I suggest you do a deep research study on Esther. On study, I also found that The Greek Translation has five Additions to the Hebrew to the book of Esther that supplement the Narrative and make the book more Religious in tone. But  Jerome’s Latin Vulgate removed them and placed them at the end of the  book.

Luther also separated the additions by placing them with the apocryphal books which are a collection of historical writings. The reliability of the book of Esther has been challenged.

Then I found lots of things in study” should The book of Esther even be in The Bible ?Luther wanted it out completely and the book of Esther is the only book in the Hebrew Bible that does not mention God’s  name ,

Also it Has No Reference To The Law, or Jewish Sacrifice , Or  Prayer , And No Reference to any revelation, and as I said  Luther considered  it  worthless. So  Now I’m  Panicking  ,, God, do you really want me to go into this? about a book in the Bible which some scholars say should not be in the Bible.

But As I Believe The Bible is The inspired Word of God  I  Decided to Study and talk about the book of Esther for myself. We will see why God left it in the Bible as the Bible is Gods Word, He breathed It into being and because I believe this account, this story has great value  for us today. The book has 10 Chapters so I cannot just repeat them all but I will attempt to give you a good overview of this story, (or should I say true account before looking at it in depth)

So I hope your sitting comfortably.

                 

The Story

Now, every Third Year in the Kingdom the king would hold a big Feast over about 180 days.

Separately Queen Vashti Also made a feast for the Women in the Royal Palace at the Same time As the King In the Kings Feast on the 7th Day.

After He Had Much Wine and was Merry He Commanded All His servants and Eunuchs to Bring to Him Queen Vashti Wearing a Royal Crown in order to Look at Her and show her off to the people as She was so Beautiful to Behold.

But Queen Vashti Refused to come At the Kings Command( My Wife Thinks She Did Not Want To Be With a lot of Drunken men at a Feast in case they became abusive or aggressive. Maybe this was the case ) but he was Advised At that time That This sort of Behaviour by His Wife And Queen would Get Out and the Other Women  in the Kingdom Would  Start Acting the Same Way  and Also Despise their Husbands.

Then the King Demanded That The Queen Be Brought Before Him Again so that He Could Sort this Out. But Again She Refused Showing more Contempt for the King. So that was it as far as He  Was Concerned “Divorce” and the King Sent out A Decree that the Queen could not See Him Again and the Royal Position of Queen would Go  To Another Women. The King And His followers Wanted the Position to go to A Woman who was Better Than The Last Queen And He Sent invitations Throughout the Kingdom that Beautiful Young Virgins would Be Found For the King. And When  He Finds the Young Woman who Pleases Him She will be Queen instead of Vashti.

Now in Shushan there Was A Certain Jew whose Name was Mordecai .

Mordecai Had Brought Up Hadassah that is Esther his Uncles Daughter., She Had Neither Father Nor Mother, this Young teenage Woman Was Lovely and Beautiful, And Mordecai had Looked after Her as His Own. When the Kings Decree was Heard and After Many Young Women were Gathered under The Custody of  Hegai That Esther was Taken To The Kings Palace into the Care of Hegai the Custodian of the Women. Now Esther Pleased Him and She Obtained His Favour and She Was Given Beauty Preparations and An Allowance.

I’m just Going to Cut in on the story at this Point, Esther would have Been well Trained And well Adjusted Socially,  and Also Spiritually Prepared , this is evident from Her Favour  that She Received from her Superiors at the Palace. Interestingly Although Esther basically Was Catapulted out of Obscurity into A Totally Different Environment, She Continues To Obey Mordecai’s instructions As He Wanted to Protect Her  from the Possibility of Anti -Semitic Reactions.

At this Point Esther was Moved to The Best Place in the House for the Women. And Interestingly, had Not Yet Revealed that She Was A Jew or Anything About Her Family, As Mordecai Had Told Her Not to Reveal it. Every day He Paced Up And Down Outside the Women’s Quarters to Learn of Esthers’ Welfare And What Was Happening to Her. Now After She had Completed 12 Months of Preparation, in  Beauty Treatments and in Perfumes  She was Due to Be Put Before the King. 

She was Given Whatever she desired to Take With Her from the women’s Quarters to the Kings Palace.

She Requested Nothing from Hegai the Kings eunuch.

And  Because of this She Obtained More Favour  in the sight of All Who Saw Her. Now the King Had Seen Esther, The King Loved Esther More than All the Other Women And She Obtained Grace and Favour in His Sight More Than All The Other Virgins. He Then Set the Royal Crown On her Head and made her Queen instead of Vashti.

I’d like to point out that even though Esther was Prepared for 12 months with all this Beauty Treatment and Training, which was required by Persian law i.e  Esther had to be Attractive Physically on the Outside. Now in contrast to all this Outward Show and Physical Preparation in Order for Her to Fulfil Gods Purpose she Also Needed to Be Prepared  Spiritually. We see Here a Wonderful example of Godly Womanhood as described in 1 Peter 3: 1-4  Which Says Wives Likewise be Submissive to your own husbands that even if some do Not obey the word  they without A word may be Won By the Conduct of their Wives when they Observe your chaste conduct Accompanied by fear.

Do not let your Adornment be Merely Outward-Arranging the Hair Wearing Gold, or Putting on fine Apparel- Rather Let it Be the Hidden Person of the “Heart”, with the incorruptible Beauty of A Gentle and Quiet Spirit which is very Precious in the sight of God.

So the contrast we see Here was That The King and the people were Only Looking for Outward Beauty And She Did Need To Be Georgeous” To get the Job, But God was Looking  for inward Beauty so that She could fulfil Her Mission that God Had Planned for Her, which was soon to take place in this story.  She would fulfil her destiny.

After she became Queen the king put on a Great Feast And proclaimed a Holiday through out the provinces.

Now, As it Mentioned Esther had Not revealed her family and  people as Mordecai had instructed Her As She Had Been Brought up By him.

Now Mordecai Sat within the Kings gates (let’s note that the Kings gate was where important Legal and Business Transactions Took Place ) Now Two of the Kings Eunuchs Bigthan and Terresh were Doorkeepers And Mordicai Overheard Them As  They became Furious About something and Sought And Planned to Lay Hands on the King and kill him . So Mordecai Overhears this Plot and Tells Queen Esther his step  Daughter And Esther informed the King on Behalf of Mordecai. When an enquiry was made About The Plot  it was Confirmed To Be True and both of the Eunuchs were Hung on the gallows.

The event was written in the Record books in the Presence of the King. A few Days After this event the king Promoted Haman above all Princes who were with Him, and All the kings servants who were Within the Kings Gate  had to Bow and Pay Homage to Haman as the king commanded all this. But Mordecai Esther’s step Father would Not Bow or Pay Homage to Haman and the Kings servants questioned this.

They told Haman and They also Told Haman that Mordecai was in Fact A Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai Didn’t Bow or Pay Homage he got really Angry. But he Didn’t lay Hands on Mordecai alone but instead Haman sort to Destroy all the Jews who were Throughout the whole kingdom and Mordecai’s people.

Now Over A Period of Time Haman tried to Poison the King’s Thinking About the Jews Being Different People in the kingdom and that they had Different Laws and He Was Pushing the king into Destroying All the Jews. Haman was Offering 10,000 Talents of Silver for Anyone who Did the work. The King Agreed and They Cast Lots to Determine the Best Day to Carry Out Hamans’ Plan and Kill All the Jews in the Kingdom. The Lottery was Called “pur”  and Later Became a Holiday called  “Purim” which we will talk about shortly.  

So Haman’s Plan Went Ahead and Haman was getting Everything arranged  and the whole Thing Was Given the Kings Approval by His Signet Ring Seal. The Letter was Sent By the Courtiers to All The Kings Provinces To Destroy Kill and Annihilate All Jews both Young and Old including Women and Children on the 13th day of the 12 month  which we Believe is February and to Plunder All Their Possessions.

Now When Mordecai Learned About This He Tore his Clothes Off and Put on Sack Cloth and Ashes and Went Out to the midst of the City and Cried out  with a Loud and Bitter cry. He got as far as the Kings Gate but Could Not Enter as he was in Sackcloth.

The whole Jewish Nation Began to Mourn , Fast and Weep. We Don’t Know if They Prayed But it was Custom in those Times Just To Put on Sackcloth And Mourn Finally Esther Found out  And She was Really Upset and sent Garments to Clothe Modecai and take away his Sackcloth, but he Refused Them.

Esther Wanted to see the King But Needed an Appointment Even Mordeaci Warned Esther that She could not Escape the Kings palace and Mordecai Told Her, That She could Not Stay Silent  But IF She Did  Stay Silent Relief and Deliverance would Rise from Another Place, But that She and Her Fathers House  would Perish.

He Tells Her “ Who Knows She Might Be in the Kingdom For Such A Time As This” She sent A Message to Mordecai to Gather all the Jews Together And Fast for Her  for 3 days and 3 nights including her maids and then She Was Determined  that she would then Go to the King After this with “No” Appointment “which was Against the Law.”

So Mordecai went and did According to Esther’s Wishes.

On the third Day of the fast Esther Put on her Royal Robe and stood in the inner Court Across from the King’s House while the king sat on his Throne. Then the king Saw Her and She found Favour in his sight and he Asked her what was her Wish. “What is your Request He said and it shall be given to you up to Half the Kingdom.”

Esther Answered by Requesting A Banquet with just the king and Haman . At the end of the Banquet After they had Been Drinking some wine he Asked her what Was her Request and Reminded Her that she Could Have up to Half the kingdom if she so Desired.

But All she Requested at this time was Another Banquet the Next Day for just the King and Haman, just to Heighten the Kings interest but this also  served to  Make Haman  feel that he was Privileged  to be there,, and  This filled Him with More indignation  Against Morecai And the Jews even More  “ he went Away Boasting to his Family that  only He Had been invited  and he was on a Bit of an Ego Trip.

His wife even Suggested that he Build  a Big Gallows so he Could Hang Mordecai. So he went Merrily to the Second Banquet Rather Pleased with Himself .

That Night the King Couldn’t Sleep so He Commanded the Scribes to Bring the Book of Records  of the Chronicles and they were Read Before the king. It was only Then that the King Found Out That it was in fact Mordecai who had Discovered the Plot to kill him by the Eunuchs. The King Enquired As to what Honour and Reward Mordecai Had Been Given for This  and They Said “Nothing Has Been Done for Mordeaci”. So the King Said who is in the Court Now? And they Told Him That Haman Had just Entered the Outer Court of  The Palace.  Haman was there to Arrange the Hanging of Mordeaci.

But the king went to See Haman And the king was Thinking of Mordecai but The King Asked  Haman “ What Rewards and Honour Should Be Done for a Man who was in The Kings Favour .?

Haman of Course Wrongly Assumed the king Must Have Been Meaning Himself so He Replied  Give the Man a Horse on Which The king has Ridden with the Royal Crest on it’s Head  with Royal Robes and Parade Him on Horse Back Through the Streets And Proclaim as he Goes that this is the Man in Whom the King Delights.

Then the King Told Haman To Arrange All this for Mordecai  the Jew who Sits within the king’s Gate and to Leave No Detail  Undone from what he Had Just Suggested. Haman had to do this for Mordecai. Afterwards He went Home Very Upset  but his Wife Said if Mordecai is of Jewish Descent You will Not Prevail Against Him and You will Surely Fall Before him.

While they were Talking, the Eunuchs came to Collect Haman for the Second Banquet which he Had Been invited To.

And At the end of the Banquet the King Again Asked Esther what her Request was, she Declared that if she had Found Favour in His Sight and if it Pleases the king to let her Life Be Given Her and Also that of  her People “For we Have Been Sold my People and I, She Said to be Destroyed And killed and Annihilated”.

So the king Asked her who Planned in his Heart to Do This .

Esther Said the Enemy is this wicked Haman and Haman of Course was Terrified at this Point. Later on Haman was Trying to Talk Esther Round and Fell on Her on the Sofa and the King walked in and there and then Pronounced the Death Sentence and they Covered Hamans Head and  Face.

It was Suggested that Haman be Hung on the Same Gallows that he Had Erected to Hang Mordecai on. 8 days After the Hanging the King Gave Haman’s House to Queen Esther,,

And Mordecai Came Before the king as Esther had Told the king that He was Related To Her. The king Took off  His Signet Ring and Gave it to Mordecai and Appointed Mordecai over the House of Haman. Then Esther had to Get the King To Retract the Decree to Destroy  the Jewish people.

So the king told Mordecai and Esther That They Could Draw Up Their own Contract for the Jewish People so they were Able to  include  things like the fact that  they could use their own Language and they could  Avenge Themselves if any Enemies Attacked. A National Holiday was Granted  and A Time of Feasting and the Jews were Able to Take Revenge on

those who Plotted Against Them Beforehand. In fact the Jews killed and Destroyed 500 men at this time.  Then the 10 sons of Haman were killed ,But the Jews Did Not Take any of their  plunder.

After this the Jews killed a Further 75,000 of their Enemies. But again didn’t lay a hand on their plunder.

This was on the 13th day of the month of Adar (Feb) and on the 14th day they rested and this became the feast of Purim which has been celebrated annually since that time. All this was officially recorded and  put in the Chronicles of Media and Persia. And The king Became great among the Jews and was well Received by the multitude of his people .

On Re Cap

The Biggest Thing That Hits Me From This Story is That If The Jews Had Been Wiped Out , Jesus Would Not Have Been Born To  A Jew To Fulfil  all The Prophesies in the Old Testament.

I believe  God Has left This account in The Bible for A few Reasons , It  Shows Us About Anti Semitisim

Like The “  year Old Boys Herod murdered  In Bethlehem,

And Moses placed  In the Basket by his parents to prevent him from Certain death.

We see It’s A Bid By Satan To Stop The Birth of Christ ,

And We See The Genocide of The Jews Through From Pharaoh, Haman, Herod, And  Hitler, Even the 10 Sons Of Haman Hung , Was Like The 10 Natzis Hung after the Nuremburg Trials Also We See  Things Like The Feast of  Purim Which is held yearly ) This was The Lots Taken That  Appeared To Seal Their Doom I Think this is Where we Got The number  13 as  being Unlucky We Can Also See How The Jews Acted in A Gentile Society, Outside The Promised Land.

So We Can See A Model in This For Us To Live And Act As Christians in A Evil world awaiting God’s Judgement.

Even Though We Cannot See That God’s Name is Not Mentioned in This Story, But The Writer Might have Put God’s Name in By using Acrosstics, Now That’s a sort of Code using a  different Hebrew  Letter at the beginning of each Line , so when  it is read down it reads as a Coded Sentence, there are  5 Acrosstics in This Story, spelling out the name of the Lord.

In Those Times The Jews Thought That the Names of God Were Too Holy To Be Spoken On The Lips Of Gentiles.

I came Across That in New York a few Years Ago , When I Asked a Jew About The Names Of God He Would Not Tell me as He Did Not want Me To Speak the Words, Most

Jews Think We Worship A Different God. Also during The Time This Was Written it Might Have Been Dangerous for The Jews To Talk About God Openly So God’s Name May have Been Put In By Code. Even Though God’s Name is Not openly Mentioned  We Can With Out A Doubt See his Hand in All This, Let’s Briefly Look at the Main People And Happenings in this Story.

Lets Take a look at Haman, We See Pride Bursting from Him , (and as we Know Pride Comes Before A Fall)

There’s A Lot About His Line, He was  Probably from The Amalekite’s  And The Amalekites were Enemies of Moses. We See The Enemy Coming Through these peoples family lines To Destroy The Jews, That’s why Haman Got upset when Mordecai Refused to Worship Him . This Man Was Trying To Manipulate Things To Elevate Himself Against God’s People, with his Evil Plan , And Schemes, The book of Proverbs says that  There are many plans in A man’s Heart,   but  Nevertheless  it’s The Lord’s Counsel – That will Stand .

I Believe Haman Was Lost Before He Started Against The Lord This Was A  Deliberate Act on his Part to plot and  scheme,  he had Become so Proud And was on A power trip, I can Hear Him thinking “ I am going to do this I am Going To Become  so Great my family Are Going to be so Proud of Me, Look at Me the Kings Right Hand Man”  etc   etc

   “ But No One Can Fool God” , He Checks our  Thoughts Our Motives  And our Hearts. The Bible says “ be Sure your sin will find you out” and Haman got found out.

Now , What about  The King ,

He   Seems A Cool Chap To  Me As Kings Go  But  He To Was Deceived To A Degree By Haman ,  But The King seems  To Me  to be Directed By God  in An indirect way.

God got His Attention Because he had insomnia, he couldn’t sleep so he Decides in The Night To Look At The Book of Records …. And that’s really  A key in The Story to

History Being Altered  Because He Realises that It’s Mordecai All Along who Uncovered The Conspiracy to Try and kill him

Now Looking At Mordecai

Here’s A Man of Faith He Really Looked After Esther , And He  knew That She Was To Be A  Queen For Such A Time As This ,

And He speaks to Esther with Words of faith , He sounds as Though he is speaking Prophetically  he tells  Esther  in chapter 4 verse 13“ Do not think in your heart  that you will  Escape in the Kings palace any more than all the other Jews, For if you Remain completely silent  At this time , Relief and deliverance  will Arise for the Jews from another place but you and your fathers house will perish. Yet who knows  whether you have come to the kingdom  For such A Time as This” .

So Esther Has To Talk To The King As She Was Going To Die Anyway. So She Had Everything To Gain And Everything To Lose, she was in A precarious position.

God Has Placed Mordecai   Right there in  Esther’s life to Groom her, to Prepare her  , He Was Also Humble  And in The End God Raised Him Up,  ( the bible says God gives grace to the humble) And we see That in the Story As Everything was Turned Around from what it Looked like was Going to Happen.

God is Sovereign  He Brings down and He raises up to Fulfil His Own Purposes. When They Fasted it Does Not Say  that They Prayed But I Think They Did.  Fasting  is A Sign of intensity of Desire Related to Desperate Need. In Those Days They Did And Still Do Make A Big Thing When They are Mourning  or in A Desperate situation.

Now lets look Esther

She Had Been Prepared both By God And Modecai  ,

And She Really Rose To The Main Opportunity , Purpose And Privilege for Being and Doing The Right Thing For God’s Plan For The Jewish  Nation.

Esther’s Response is The Ultimate Commitment To Mordecai And Her People, (The Condemned  Jew’s.) In Essence She Says You Do Your Part Help Me And I  Will Do What You Asked ( That’s God and Mordecai, Even If I  Die Doing it, She was Obedient and She Had Courage And Wisdom , 

She Was Thinking About Her People Not Herself ,

And Esther is Being Used Wisely And Shrewdly By God

And  She Understands The importance of Waiting  For God’s  Timing   Before Making Her Requests. Esther Is Also Rewarded For Fearing God  Not Man , And For Intense intercession

God  Promises the Same Reward For Those Who Fulfil  The Same Conditions “good A?

Lets  look at God’s Hand in this

God’s Name Might not Have Been Mentioned in This Story But , God Was Certainly The Master Planner , And You Know He Still is, it’s Just The Case of  Seeking Him In lifes   Situations,  As He is  Always There.

You Know  Our Modern Experience of God is More Like The Book Of Esther ,

Than Many of The Old Testament Books in that In the book of  Esther God Worked Behind The Scenes  To Bring About Deliverance for His People, God Did Not Work in This Story Through Spectacular Plagues or A Miracle Like The Red Sea , But God Worked Through A Courageous Old Man Who Refused To Abandon His Principles And A Courageous Woman  Who Valued The Lives of Her People More Than Her Own .

I Believe The Book of Esther Calls Us To Look At The Lives of People Committed  To God.

If We Want To Know What God is Doing To Bring About Deliverance in The World For His People , As  Christians Our Power And Influence  Should Be Used For Righteous  Purposes And Not For Self-gratification.

Power is A Gift From God To Be Used for The Benefit of  His People And His  Creation.

Christian Citizenship Demands involvement in The Affairs of The State Anti-Semitism And Other Forms of  Racial And Religious Bigotry  Can  Easily Lead To a  Dangerous  ABUSE OF Power.

Today Christians,  Like Esther , Must Be  Courageous in Opposing Such  Abuses.

(Now Im not Talking about Doing Unwise things But whilst Standing for God’s principles, We Must focus on The Outcome  of  the story It All Looked Bleak  Through Much  of This Story, Until the End, When we see  the Result God intended.

To Day if You Feel Abandoned By God or You feel That it’s Not Profitable To Be On The Lord’s Side, on the Right side. Look At The Last Chapter of Esther.

God Brought About A Reversal   of  Circumstances .

That  is so encouraging You Know We Should Live Our Lives With A View  To How Our  STORY  is GOING To END, God is not Unjust, He is a Righteous and Just God and  Some Day  Every Knee  Will Bow And  Every  Tongue will   Confess That Jesus Christ is Lord.

You Know What,   The

Occasional Fasting And the Anxious Prayers Will all Be Forgotten, In Heaven’s Feasting. They feasted at the end of the story and we too will be feasting At the end if We Remain faithful To Him

I Believe Esther Has Taught Us All A Lot of Things Today So Let Us All Remember That God Has A Plan And  A Purpose For Us All.

Thank You And May The Lord Bless You.

If you do not know Jesus as your personal savour please click on the Call to Faith Icon.