ESTHER PART 1
Tonight we will begin to take a look at the book of Esther. Chronologically this book is between Ezra chapter 6 and Ezra chapter 7 in which we have about a 58 year period. However, the events in Esther only deal with a 20 year period beginning around 483 B.C. So the events in Esther happened between the 1st return of the Jews with Zerubbabel and the 2nd return of the Jews with Ezra.
The name Esther means star and her Hebrew name Hadassah, which means Mrytle is the name of a tree that religiously symbolizes peace and joy. This fit perfectly with what Esther did for her people. There only two books in the Bible that is named after a woman, first is Ruth and of course 2nd is the book of Esther.
The Author is unknown, but some believe that either Ezra or
Mordecai may have penned it. This book has been described as an island because
it is unique as it does not mention God, it does not refer to the Law of Moses, and
none of the other books in the Bible quote this book. The book of Esther mainly
deals with the history of those Jews who did not return back to
So, there is twofold purpose of this book. First, it is
designed to give us an accurate account of what happened to these Jews in
Key Words:
Key Verses:
Esther 4:14
"For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance
will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house
will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?" 15 Then
Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:
16 "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan,
and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids
and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against
the law; and if I perish, I perish!"
Esther 8:17 And in
every province and city, wherever the king's command and decree came, the Jews
had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the
land became Jews, because fear of the Jews fell upon them.
Key Phrase: For such a time as this.
Key Chapter is chapter 8 because this chapter records how the Jews were saved from the decree the King made against the Jews due to Haman’s evil plot and how Esther went to the King and brought about another decree that the Jews could defend themselves. It also recaps how Haman was hung on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. If Esther had not been brave and went before the King, then countless Jews would have been killed. Her bravery brought joy and honor to the Jews and God’s providence is what made it all happen.
Even though this book does not mention God, it is easy to see God at work in these events. Matthew Henry wrote: “If the name of God is not here, his finger is.”
I want you to notice what J. Baxter had say about this:
"...if God had
been specifically mentioned in the story, or, still more, if the story had been
specifically explained, in so many words, that it was God who was bringing
about all those happenings which are recorded, the dramatic force and moral
impact of the story would have been reduced; for, above all, we are meant to
see, in the natural outworking of events, how, without violating human free
will, and without interrupting the ordinary ongoing of human affairs, a hidden
Power unsuspectedly but infallibly controls all things." (Baxter, pp.
260-61)
This same thing is true today. While many events occur in our time without God being mentioned, as Christians we can know that God has a part in what happens through his providence. After all, He as the power to build and destroy nations, as Job said,
Job 12:23 He makes
nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them.
Next, I want to look at
some of the principle characters in this book.
First, is King Ahasuerus, which most agree that this is referring to King Xerxes I who reigned 485 to 464 B.C. Historically, this was man that morally bankrupt and who would change his mind over and over again. Again, J. Baxter gives us some great insight of this man’s character.
"This is the
king who ordered a bridge to be built over the Hellespont, and who, on learning
that the bridge had been destroyed by a tempest, just after its completion, was
so blindly enraged that he commanded three hundred strokes of the scourge to be
inflicted on the sea ... and then had the unhappy builders of the bridge
beheaded. This is the king who, on being
offered a sum equivalent to five and a half millions sterling by Pythias, the
Lydian, toward the expenses of a military expedition, was so enraptured of such
loyalty that he returned the money, accompanied by a handsome present; and
then, on being requested by this same Pythias, shortly afterwards, to spare him
just one of his sons -- the eldest -- from the expedition, as the sole support
for his declining years, furiously ordered the son to be cut into two pieces,
and the army to march between them. This
is the king who dishonored the remains of the heroic Spartan, Leonidus. This is the king who drowned the humiliation
of his inglorious defeat in such a plunge of sensuality that he publicly
offered a prize for the invention of some new indulgence ... Herodotus tells us that among the myriads
gathered for the expeditions against Greece, Ahasuerus was the fairest in
personal beauty and stately bearing. But
morally he was a mixture of passionate extremes. He is just the despot to dethrone queen
Vashti for refusing to expose herself before his tipsy guests. He is just the one to consign a people Like
the Jews to be massacred, and then to swing over to the opposite extreme of
sanctioning Jewish vengeance on thousands of his other subjects."
Knowing this background information about this king, helps us better understand his actions in the book of Esther.
Vashti was the queen of Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus loved to have feast and offer up wine for his guest to drink. Well, at the end of a 7 day feast, he wanted his wife to come before the men he was entertaining so they could see how beautiful she was, but she refused the king. Her actions that day were commendable, but it did cost her crown and it opened up the door for a new queen to be sought.
We should admire and respect Vashti’s decision because she was not willing to show herself as object of lust to group of drunken men even if it meant that she would lose her crown. There are many women today that need to learn a great lesson about modesty because many take no thought in how they dress or what they expose and some even dress themselves as skimpy as they can so they get attention or use their bodies as way of advancing themselves in their work place. No one named a Christian should ever do this because Paul teaches us that women and men should dress in such away that will profess godliness 1 Tim. 2:9-10.
Mordecai is an interesting man. He was probably born while in Babylonian captivity. When Mordecai’s uncle died, he adopted his daughter as his own because she had no else that could take care of her. Mordecai did his best to raise Esther and give her guidance. When she was chosen to be one of the women the king would choose as his new queen, he advised her not tell anyone that she was a Jew.
While he was hanging out at the Kings’ gate to find out if
Esther would be chosen or not, he overheard the plan of 2 eunuchs who were
going to kill the king and he let the king know about this. Since, Mordecai
exposed these traitors, his name and what he did was written in royal
chronicles of
Even though it is not specifically stated, I believe that Mordecai showed his loyalty to God by not bowing down to Haman, who at the time was the official second to the king. According to Greek History when a Persian would before the king, they paid homage to him as a God. Even though Haman was not the King himself, he wasn’t about to bow down to a man and give him the homage that belonged to God.
Mordecai also played a significant role in the providence of God because he encouraged Queen Esther to speak up to the king so that the Jewish people might be able to survive the wicked plot of Haman. As the story goes we know that Mordecai ends up taking the position of Haman, while Haman is hung on the same gallows that the he prepared for Mordecai.
Esther was a beautiful Hebrew woman. As I said earlier, she
was raised by her cousin Mordecai. Out of all of the young virgins in
Finally, we need to talk about Haman. Haman was the prime minister of the king and he was rotten to the core. All he thought about was himself and his reputation. He is called an Agagite. This means that he was Amalekite and he was most likely a direct descendant of King Agag who King Saul was supposed to kill, but he did not.
We can see how prideful he was because he could not stand it when Mordecai would not bow down to him. This is why he plotted not only to take down Mordecai, but all the Jews. Haman was successful at getting the king to sign a decree that the Jews should be destroyed, but everything else he tried to do kept going wrong for him. For instance, he was going to get the king to hang Mordecai, but instead, he ended up having to parade him around for exposing the plot of the eunuchs to kill the king. The gallows he made to hang Mordecai ended being used to hang him. This goes to show you that it doesn’t pay to be evil and even if you get your way all of your life by living the evil way eventually you will pay for your evil deeds when you stand before God at the judgment day.
The book of Esther centers around 3 different feasts.
1. The feast of Ahasuerus, which covers chapters 1 and 2. The following events occur:
2. The feast of Esther covers events leading up to the feast and its outcome in chapter 3 – 7. The following events occur:
3. The feast of Purim covers the events that bring this feast to life in chapters 8 – 10. The following events occur:
Now I want to give you little more information about the feast of Purim, which was instituted by Mordecai in Est. 9:20. Please note what Nelson’s Bible Dictionary states about this feast:
This feast
commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from destruction by an evil
schemer named Haman during the days of their captivity by the Persians. It took
its name from the Babylonian word put, meaning lot, because Haman cast lots to
determine when he would carry out his plot against the Jews. The Feast of Purim
took place on the 14th and 15th of Adar, and during it
celebration the Book of Esther is read as a reminder of their deliverance. A
happy ceremony, Purim is accompanied with the giving of gifts and much
celebration.
The last thing I want to look at this evening is some of the great lesson that we can learn from this book.
1. This book teaches us how God is watching out for us and He is working in the background. We just have to faith that He is doing so. As Paul said:
Romans 8:28 And we
know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are the called according to His purpose.
2. Queen Vashti gives a
great example to all women that they don’t have compromise with the world and
parade themselves around so that they can appease the lustful eye of worldly
men. Of course the men can learn the same lesson.
3. This book teaches us
the importance of always being ready to serve God like Mordecai and Esther did.
Sometimes we may have to make a hard choice like Esther did, but we must be
willing to do it, when we know it will bring honor and glory to God. This is
why Paul tells us to be ready for every good work in Titus 3:1.