By Mary Fairchild
1581 Bunting Clover Leaf Map; Israel in the center.
Esther 1: 1-22; Esther is a story of the Jewish people in Gentile captivity. The events most likely occur between the first and seventh chapters of the book of Ezra. They begin with the third year of Ahasuerus’s reign and they continue through his twelfth year. Ahasuerus is the Hebrew name for Xerxes I. The setting takes place in the Persian capital of Susa (Shushan). They remained in colonies near Babylon, but after Persia took control, many moved to the Persian capital. A large group of Jews had already returned to Jerusalem, but a great number remained in Babylon where they operated prosperous businesses.
KING AHASUERUS’S FEAST: According to Persian history, this celebration was in preparation for Ahasuerus’s campaign against Greece. When the king sent for his queen, Vashti, to be brought before his guests, she was repulsed and suspected her husband was influenced by too much wine and refused to come. In anger the king was counseled to dethrone Vashti because she was setting an example of lack of submission to the other ladies of Persia. The king then sent a royal command throughout all the empire which could not be altered by the Medes and the Persians: all wives should honor their husbands, and every man should bear rule in his own house.
ESTHER (2:1-11): Lonely, the king begins to look for another wife. Preparations were made for beautiful young virgins to come to the palace as candidates to become the future queen. Born in captivity, Mordecai, a Jew, had raised his cousin, Esther when her parents had died. Mordecai took Esther to the palace. During her preparations to appear before the king, Esther’s pleasing manner won her favor with the keeper of the women. Unmarked as a Jew, she was warned by Mordecai not to reveal her nationality. Although she could ask for anything as an ornament for her appearance before the king, Esther asked for nothing except the things that were appointed by her superiors.
Esther was favored by the king above all others and she was chosen to be the new queen. She had a beautiful submissive spirit (2:20). When Mordecai became aware that two disgruntled officials planned to assonate the king, he informed Esther, who gave the information to the king in Mordecai’s name. Investigation proved the assassins’ intent; they were hanged, and Ahasuerus’s life was spared. A written record of this was kept in the royal records.
Haman, one of the king’s administrators, was promoted. Everyone in the palace bowed to Haman except Mordecai because he was a Jew. Haman hated Mordecai and devised a way to kill all the Jews. He convinced the king that Jews were very numerous ad very insubordinate to authority, and that their spoil would bring great price to the Persian treasury. Ahasuerus decided to give Haman the authority to have all Jews annihilated on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. Since Persia controlled Egypt, the decree would reach even there where a large settlement of Jewish people lived.
Esther 4-10; Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes and went crying in the street before the king’s gate. Jews in every province also mourned, fasted, and wept over their impending disaster.
After fasting and praying three days, Esther dressed in her royal clothes and went before the king. She requested Haman and the king to be at a banquet that day. At the banquet, she requested their presence at another banquet the following day. Full of pride, Haman strutted from the palace passing Mordecai who, as usual, would not bow. Haman boasted about his status, his family, his wealth, and his favor with the queen to his friends….then he complained about Mordecai, the Jew. Haman’s friends suggested the gallows be made for Mordecai so that he could enjoy the next banquet with the queen.
Esther’s life illustrates the benefits of her submission to Mordecai. If Esther had disobeyed Mordecai by revealing her nationality, she probably would not have become the queen of Persia. Her submission is tested again when Mordecai asked her to risk her life and plead for the lives of the Jewish people. When she obeyed and prayed, she received courage and the ability to trust the Lord.
The night after the banquet with Esther, the king had the official chronicle read to him. He heard about the incident of Mordecai’s tip-off of the assassin’s plot and he decided to reward him. When the king saw Haman the next morning he asked what he could do for a man he wished to greatly honor. Thinking the king spoke of him, Haman described royal apparel and being led down the street on the king’s horse, with one of the king’s noble princes crying, “This is the man the king delights to honor.” Then the king told him to do so to Mordecai the Jew.
At the banquet the king asked Esther her request and she was direct, “Spare my life and the lives of my people, for we are decreed to die.” The stunned king asked who had devised such a wicked plan and she replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” That day Haman died in the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king gave Mordecai authority to write another decree instructing the Jews to organize and fight against any who tried to harm them. Now the Jews were honored and feared by their neighbors.
On the 13th day of the 12th month, the Jews in Shusham killed500 of their enemies. At Esther’s request, an additional day was who were hanged. In other provinces, the Jews killed 75,000 of their enemies. Though they were granted permission to take the possessions of those killed, they did not. Jews throughout the empire rested and feasted for two days after this great deliverance. Mordecai established the 14th and 15th days of the 12th month, Adar (part of our months of February and March), as days of rest and fasting to commemorate this great deliverance. It is still celebrated today by the Jewish people and is called the feast of Purim.
Mordecai was promoted to prime minister. In the second great Gentile world empire, the king’s prime minister was a Jew and the queen a Jewess. They were the organization and the heart of the Persian Empire. Mordecai was probably influential in paving the way for the return of the Jews to Israel and the work of Ezra and Nehemiah in rebuilding the city and the Temple.
Satan’s purpose, the annihilation of the Jewish race, was turned ironically to the exaltation of the Jewish race. Without a Hebrew people, there could be no Messiah, and without a Messiah, there would have been no Savior for us.
WORKS CITED
- Revelation and Church History
- Church Age
- Old Testament Study
- KING JAMES BIBLE
- MATTHEW HENRY COMMENTARY
- A Beka Book High School Bible Series “United Kingdom: Kings of Israel A;” 1995 Pensacola Christian College.