[Note: The following is a prepared text for a Bible Study given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Wednesday, March 20th, 2024.]

We are only a few days from the festival of Purim, which happens about a month before the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, and although this festival is not one that we tend to observe, it is a festival whose observance is celebrated and certainly permitted by the Bible as a sign of God’s deliverance of His people from the threat of extermination that was faced during the times of the Persian Empire, when many Jews (though by no means all of them) were under the rule of this mighty empire. The situation of the Jews in Esther, a small people in a large empire, is a situation that we ought to be familiar with as part of the New Testament Church of God, which has generally been in this position wherever brethren have dwelled around the world. While the events of Esther occurred in some 2500 years ago or so, they are still of relevance to us. Let us therefore explore this today.

The book of Esther is ten chapters long and it is far too long to explore the entire book and comment at length about it. Indeed, if we started from the beginning and sought to examine every connection between the book and the rest of the Bible, we would likely only get a couple of chapters through. For our purposes today, therefore, this particular study will be a survey of the book of Esther, a surface level reading that will allow us to get the most obvious lessons that come from a book that is perhaps not often examined in depth, and is worthy of additional study as time permits. We may be familiar with the general plot of Esther from our experiences reading the book, yet at the same time we may not be as familiar with the relevance of Esther to our current circumstances, and especially the way that the book of Esther deals with several concerns that we think of as being particularly modern problems, and so it is worthwhile to examine these lessons as we go. Our approach will be to examine important passages one by one as we find them through the book of Esther and then to comment on them and provide insights, before moving on to the next one and repeating the process, until we come to the end of the book. With that said, let us begin.

When we begin Esther, we are immediately placed in a world that we should be quite familiar with. Esther 1:1-4 sets the context of the book of Esther, in both its place and time, and though it is a place and a time that are both far removed from us, it is one in which there are many similarities as well. Esther 1:1-4 reads: “Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia), in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the citadel, that in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants—the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces being before him— when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days, one hundred and eighty days in all.”

Just like our own time, the time of Ahasuerus of Persia was one where there were great empires who dominated over the world. During this time the Persian empire, with its rule extending from North Africa through the Middle East into Europe and down into the Arabian desert and well into Central Asia and India, the Persian king ruled over perhaps half of the world’s population. The splendor that he displayed to his people, as a way of demonstrating the wealth of the empire, was largely wealth that had come from taxation. This is by no means unique to that empire or to empires in general. Whatever wealth is shown off by those who lead any government, or whatever splendor we see in the public, these splendors come from the taxation of ordinary people. The Jewish people were but a small people in this massive empire, and that is a good approximation of the way that believers in God today are but small parts of the nations in which they are a part, and so have to operate under the understanding that we are not the movers and shakers of this present world, nor were we meant to be, but we must live in places where our size and importance are not what determines how we are treated by the governments that rule over us.

It is also important to note that there is a direct contrast between the behavior of the Persian king here and the way that Jesus Christ has established the proper leadership for Christians. Throughout human history, up to the present day, people have first tended to make often ill-gotten gain through taxation or corrupt business practices and then receive a reputation as a benefactor for society by giving some of that money back for carefully targeted purposes that suit the interests of the person giving the donation, thus allowing them to maintain their power over the uses of their money while also seeking to gain a reputation for generosity. Whether this is done by government officials or other elites, titans of industry, and the like, it is the same pattern of behavior that was identified by Jesus Christ in Luke 22:24-26. Let us keep a marker here in Esther as we will be returning, but of what is said of this behavior in Luke 22:24-26, we read: “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.”

When we compare what we see at the beginning of Esther to what we read in the Gospels, the sort of behavior among leaders that Jesus Christ modeled and that he expected us as believers to practice were on completely different lines altogether. No human regime that has ever existed or that now exists is worthy of our ultimate loyalty nor expresses the will of God being demonstrated. This is not to say that believers have no obligations towards human regimes, for we do, and Esther explores precisely these issues, but human governments as a whole have legitimacy that is based on their serving as the servants of God in protecting God’s people from harm and in practicing and enabling the obedience of God’s laws as His servants on this earth, a task which most nations of the world have done poorly. Although the Persian empire was in many ways a very good regime compared with the regimes that have existed over the course of human history, it was by no means perfect, nor did it represent any sort of example of how God’s kingdom looks on earth. With our expectations tempered, then, let us continue looking at Esther.

When we look at Esther 1:10-22, we see the precipitating incident in the entire book of Esther, and it is very important to understand what this verse means and also its relevance to our own times. Esther 1:10-22 reads: “On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command brought by his eunuchs; therefore the king was furious, and his anger burned within him. Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times (for this was the king’s manner toward all who knew law and justice, those closest to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who had access to the king’s presence, and who ranked highest in the kingdom): “What shall we do to Queen Vashti, according to law, because she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus brought to her by the eunuchs?” And Memucan answered before the king and the princes: “Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the princes, and all the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen’s behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes, when they report, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come.’ This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all the king’s officials that they have heard of the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive contempt and wrath. If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will not be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. When the king’s decree which he will make is proclaimed throughout all his empire (for it is great), all wives will honor their husbands, both great and small.” And the reply pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Memucan. Then he sent letters to all the king’s provinces, to each province in its own script, and to every people in their own language, that each man should be master in his own house, and speak in the language of his own people.”

There are a lot of elements of this particular passage that may strike the contemporary reader, especially the contemporary female reader, with some serious thoughts. As a single man who has never married, I have neither the competence nor the inclination to discuss either King Ahasuerus nor Queen Vashti as behaving as an ideal husband or wife ought to behave, nor to discuss what relevance this particular passage has to how husbands and wives should or should not behave to each other. That said, there are aspects of this passage that are still worthy of discussion from a historical ground even setting aside the strongly anti-feminist tone and content of this passage. It is striking that Esther’s whole opportunity to become Queen of Persia and to save her people came about because Vashti’s feminist self-assertive behavior alienated her from the king and made her an apparent threat to the stability of households all over the Persian empire such that her removal was deemed necessary and proper to ensure that husbands would be masters of their own houses. The book of Esther consistently points out that Esther is a very different sort of queen and woman to Vashti, and so we have to come to grips with what made Vashti rejected by the king to understand what it is that Esther brought to the position herself and how she operated within constraints that prevented her from asserting herself directly, and a great many of the lessons of Esther relate to how it is that Esther chose to behave to win the favor of others that serve as useful reminders of how people are to operate.

It is also worthwhile to note that the man who is responsible for reframing the behavior of Vashti as a threat to the well-being of husbands all over the Persian empire is not viewed within the book of Esther as a subject of ridicule and contempt. Memucan is not a particularly notable person in his own right, but he does appear again in the book of Esther, and in general, within the book itself, he is portrayed as a wise, thoughtful adviser who knows how things are, and who shrewdly understands his royal master and influences him along a track that is viewed as being at least worldly wise within the confines of the pages of the book. We ought to recognize this when we think of his role in framing Vashti’s action in a light that the ancient world viewed in a highly negative fashion. Let us also note briefly that this passage states that the laws of the Medes and Persians is not to be altered. As is the case in regimes around the world today–including the United States, the unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom, and other regimes around the world–the Medes and Persians expected a high degree of stability in the laws that governed them, and in order to present the image of unchangeable law and custom, had a tradition that stated that laws could not be revised once they had been decreed. There were other ways of dealing with bad laws that we will see later, but it is noteworthy that the idea of the unchangeable aspects of Persian law is here explored as a way of setting desirable social patterns in stone and keeping things the way that they ought to be and resisting undesirable change was a key aspect of the legal philosophy of the Persian empire, one that we will see later in this book in terms of how this could be worked around when necessary.

Continuing on to Esther 2:1-4, we see the next pivotal incident in how it is that Esther became Queen of Persia. Esther 2:1-4 reads: “After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decreed against her. Then the king’s servants who attended him said: “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king; and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel, into the women’s quarters, under the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, custodian of the women. And let beauty preparations be given them. Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This thing pleased the king, and he did so.”

Although this passage is full of things that we might want to comment on concerning the treatment of young women in this passage, there are two aspects of this passage that are worth commenting on as they relate to this passage and its relevance to history in general as well as the book of Esther itself in particular. The first is that this model of holding bridal pageants for a divorced or widowed king was something that was regularly practiced in Tsarist Russia as a means of finding suitable brides for a Tsar in the position that the Persian king was in. As strange and barbaric as this custom may seem to us, it was practiced within the past few hundred years, and it is perhaps noteworthy that it is in Russia that this custom appears to have lasted the longest within the Western world as a whole. The second thing to note is that twice in this short passage–as if to emphasize the point–the focus of this procedure of finding a bride for the Persian king was to please him. His wife was to please him above all else (her being beautiful and chaste was also included as desirable, but her being pleasing is of the utmost importance). The fact that this pleased the king suggests that it was known and accepted around the palace that the way to influence the king was to be pleasing to him. People can be pleased by those who are both good and evil, and a central part of the drama of the book of Esther is the way in which very opposite people, the good Esther and the wicked Haman, both seek to influence the king by pleasing him, suggesting that the king’s nature and character was known and catered to by those who wished to involve themselves with the courtly politics of the Persian realm. Whether or not this is just is a different matter altogether, but it is the way things worked, and people understood this and acted accordingly.

Let us continue on to see how it was that Esther found herself caught up in this matter and how it was that she behaved. Esther 2:5-18 tells us that story. Esther 2:5-18 reads: “In Shushan the citadel there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite. Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been captured with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So it was, when the king’s command and decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered at Shushan the citadel, under the custody of Hegai, that Esther also was taken to the king’s palace, into the care of Hegai the custodian of the women. Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor; so he readily gave beauty preparations to her, besides her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king’s palace, and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women. Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it. And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women’s quarters, to learn of Esther’s welfare and what was happening to her. Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after she had completed twelve months’ preparation, according to the regulations for the women, for thus were the days of their preparation apportioned: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women. Thus prepared, each young woman went to the king, and she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the women’s quarters to the king’s palace. In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who kept the concubines. She would not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name. Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king.”

There are a few aspects of this passage that are worth commenting on in a bit more detail. For one, let us note that the book of Esther frames the origin of Esther and her cousin Mordecai as being descended from the house of Benjamin. If the Kish and Shimei referred to here are referring to other, better known figures in the Bible, what we see is that Esther was herself a relatively close relative of King Saul. This will become more important later on as we note the aspect of unfinished business that Esther involves relating to a much older incident in the Bible relating to the rather relevant subject of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the Bible’s views on it, which is of relevance to the book of Esther as well as to our own times. We will not comment on that matter at this time, only bring it up, because we will be talking about it in more detail later.

It is also important note, in this context as well, that Esther had not revealed that she was a Benjaminite, among the people of the House of Judah, although Mordecai himself did not hide his ancestry and those who observed Mordecai’s close concern with his cousin and foster daughter would have been able to put the two and two together had it been brought up at a later point by someone else. For the moment, at least, Esther’s identity was a secret, but it was a secret that was constantly in danger of being discovered, and that will have key elements to the drama that is to follow. It is possible that Esther would have been rejected as Queen for her background had it become widely known, but since it was not, she was judged for her own outer and inner beauty and was seen as very acceptable for a queen.

It is to that inner beauty that I would like to turn now. The passage here explicitly contrasts the behavior of Esther with that of Vashti. While Vashti alienated those she came across, including the king and his counselors, Esther won over the favor of everyone around her. Although she was an orphan, a position that in both the ancient and modern world tends to make one vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, she had the loving care of her beloved cousin that allowed her to grow up into a wonderful young woman. And her ability to win over those around her was particularly key in her becoming queen. She won the favor of the king’s eunuch Hegai, who was custodian of the woman, to the point where he gave her a special place and special beauty preparations as well as the care of additional servants than were allotted to the ordinary women who were involved in this bridal pageant. Moreover, Esther listened to Hegai’s advice and only asked for needful things, thus winning favor with the king as well. With such a combination of a pleasing way about her, a willingness to accept wise counsel, and her own natural beauty, Esther was able to win over the king and to be announced as Queen in Vashi’s place, thus allowing her to be able to save her people from the threat that was soon to come.

It is at this point that while Esther is establishing her place as Queen of Persia that Mordecai is establishing his own reputation as a loyal servant of the realm as well. We see this in Esther 2:19-23. Esther 2:19-23 reads: “When virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai sat within the king’s gate. Now Esther had not revealed her family and her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him. In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.”

Let us note what happened here. Mordecai’s place at the king’s gate, where he was able to communicate easily with his cousin and check up on how she was doing, allowed him both the ability to continue to give wise advice to his dear cousin, but also to see what was going on. When two eunuchs sought to overthrow the king by taking advantage of their position as doorkeepers, key members of the king’s security team, Mordecai was able to inform on them, and was recorded as the source of the information, which, when properly verified and confirmed, led to the capital punishment of the treasonous doorkeepers, showed Mordecai as a loyal servant of the crown and someone who was worthy of recognition and praise. This recognition and praise would be delayed, though, until its appropriate time, as such things often are.

It is only now, at the beginning of the third chapter of Esther, that the peaceful rise of Esther and Mordecai is confronted with a threat to not only their position, but their survival and the survival of God’s people as a whole. We see this threat, and its focus in the person of one Haman, in Esther 3:1-6. Esther 3:1-6 reads: “After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And all the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. Then the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?” Now it happened, when they spoke to him daily and he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai.”

It is interesting that we are told nothing of what it is that led Haman to win the favor of King Ahasuerus. Unlike the careful and detailed description of Esther’s winning combination of beauty and graciousness, we are nowhere told of the specific occasion that allowed for the rise of Haman. Yet that rise carried with it ominous threats, and here we are forced to deal with the unpleasant issue of genocide and ethnic cleansing as it is discussed in the Bible. This relates to a matter of unfinished business that both Mordecai and Haman are deeply sensitive to. Just as it is worthwhile to note that Mordecai and Esther are referred to as being descended from Kish, of the family of Saul, so too it is noteworthy that Haman is described as being an Agagite, which appears to indicate his being the descendant of the royal house of Amalek which was not quite entirely destroyed by the house of Saul. Let us hold a marker here in Esther 3 and return to old business and discuss the judgment of God upon Amalek in 1 Samuel 15:1-9.
1 Samuel 15:1-9 reads: “Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ” So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.”

For Saul’s refusal to obey God’s commandment to utterly wipe out and destroy the Amalekites, Saul was rejected as king over Israel by God. We see in Esther the results of disobedience in not fully wiping out those who have a genocidal hostility against Israel. Those who have not repented of their hatred of God’s people merely seek another occasion where they may succeed next time, having been thwarted at present in their evil plots to wipe out God’s people from the face of the earth. Such people deserve extermination. Those who wish to destroy God’s people bring upon themselves the just judgment of destruction upon themselves and their own people. This is a problem that God’s people have to deal with on a recurring basis, because there is an often misguided humanitarian belief that it is wrong for certain peoples and cultures to be wiped out completely, whereas we can see here, and in places around the world, that where people are raised with a desire to destroy the people of God and to push them into the sea, or cremate them in ovens, or otherwise extirpate them from the earth, such people are a constant threat to the survival of God’s people and to His promise that there will always be a remnant of his people on this earth to bless the peoples of the earth who treat His people with kindness. The time of Esther is one of those times when it was necessary to deal with the hostility of those who were, as Haman was, deliberately set upon the destruction of God’s people as a whole, by drastic measures, and we will see in the rest of this book how drastic those measures were.

Let us see what that threat looked like in Esther 3:7-15. Esther 3:7-15 reads: “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.” So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.” Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded—to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials of all people, to every province according to its script, and to every people in their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring. And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions. A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day. The couriers went out, hastened by the king’s command; and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan the citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed.”

While we might judge that Mordecai had been a bit provocative not to bow down in the presence of Haman, we can see from Haman’s behavior that they both understood the stakes were far higher than just the relationship between two servants of the Persian king, but were about the survival of God’s people in a world where evil rulers could rise up and seek their destruction, as is the case here. Even so, despite the grim nature of the threat faced by the people of God in this time, that there were clear indications of God’s providence directing events. Let us note first that the lot fell on the last month of the year, giving Mordecai and Esther the time that they would need to thwart Haman’s evil plans. Let us also note that when Haman made his entrance into the story and began his threat, Esther and Mordecai had already established themselves as loyal members of the Persian royal establishment, giving them the institutional power that they would need to overcome Haman’s threat to their survival. It is also noteworthy that the Jewish people also had the goodwill of the people of the Persian empire as a whole. However negatively Haman framed them–and we will come to that soon–they were known for being good neighbors to those around them, and that goodwill kept the people of Persia from being gleeful executioners of the people of God, reminding us of the importance of keeping a good reputation with those around us as being decent and neighborly people who it is worth having around.

We ought to be especially sensitive, though, to the central claim of Haman that justified his effort to destroy the people of God in his time, as it is a charge that we remain vulnerable to. Haman alleges that the Jewish people were scattered and dispersed within the Persian empire. So too we as believers are scattered and dispersed among the countries where we live. Haman claims, furthermore, that the Jews obeyed different laws and did not obey the laws of the king, and because of this difference in obedience, they did not deserve to live. The same could easily be said about us. We are disobedient to laws, or seek exemption from the enforcement of those laws, which contradict God’s laws, and show our opposition to laws which seek to prevent us from speaking out against those behaviors in society at large that are contrary to the laws and ways of God as expressed in His Bible. Those who hate God’s laws and God’s people to the extent that Haman does–and such people do exist in our present world–may easily determine that we too, on the grounds that we are loyal to the kingdom of God and not the nations of this world and that we obey the laws of God in opposition to the laws of men are similarly not fit to survive. Esther’s tale of how to cope with the threat of genocide is therefore of the highest relevance to God’s people today, as that same threat stands against us all here and now.

Esther 4 is really the crisis point of the entire book of Esther, and it is worth reading in its entirety and commenting upon. Esther 4:1-17 reads: “When Mordecai learned all that had happened, [a]he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.” So they told Mordecai Esther’s words. And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s 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 father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: “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!” So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.”

Let us first summarize this passage and what is going on. When Mordecai became aware of Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jews from the face of the earth, his response was entirely proper, and that is mourning in public in sackcloth and ashes. This, the author of Esther records, was the practice of Jews throughout the Persian empire who faced destruction at the hand of Haman. Let us note that at this time half of the people of the world, give or take, lived within the boundaries of the Persian Empire, so the death and destruction threatened to God’s people at this time was immense. When Mordecai’s action became known, Esther was curious about it, and sent one of her attendants, the eunuch Hathach, to serve as a messenger between her and Mordecai, and the eunuch returns with the proclamation against the Jews as well as the instruction to go before the king to plead on behalf of her people. Esther commented that she had not received the king’s favor or attention or been called to him in a month–which indicates that the favor that Haman had gained had turned his heart away from his loving wife with the thoughts of looting and destroying a minority people within his own empire to increase his empire’s security, or so it was framed by Haman. Nevertheless, Mordecai responds to this with a moving plea that perhaps it was God’s providence that Mordecai and Esther were placed where they were for such a time as this–as indeed appears to be the case, and so Esther responds with a request for Mordecai and the Jews of Shushan to fast and pray for three days, after which she will endanger her life by going to the king without being summoned, to accept, if need be, death for the sake of preserving God’s people alive.

One of the striking things about Esther is that the name of God appears nowhere in the entire book. This passage is the closest it comes to mentioning God, since “another place” can only mean from heaven, from God’s throne, and appealing to divine providence without using God’s name is also coming as close as possible to avoid mentioning the name of God in what is obviously an appeal to God’s own providential care of His people. It is a bit puzzling why God’s name is nowhere referred to in the book of Esther when it is obvious that God’s hand is all over it. Various reasons have been put forth as to the reasons why God’s name is absent in the Hebrew form of Esther, but it is worth knowing that when Esther was translated into the Greek Septuagint that additions to it added many references to God, and so it was clear, at least to some ancient readers of the book, that God’s hand was all over the events of the book and that it was worth interpreting the book in such a fashion, although it is striking that the author of the book chooses not to mention the name of God even while making it clear that God directed all that happened within the book.

In many ways, Esther 5:1-8 is the formal climax of the book of Esther as a whole, but the author of Esther skillfully tells the story to keep the drama ramped up at its peak even after the climax of the plot is reached. Esther 5:1-8 reads: “Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robe and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house. So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter. And the king said to her, “What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom!” So Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.” Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared. At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!” Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and request is this: If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.””

Given all of the worry and concern that Esther had, understandably enough, about how she would received, it is striking to know that the Persian king was very responsive to her coming before him without his permission or his request, holding out his scepter to her and offering her up to half her kingdom. He was in no position to know–yet–that she was not asking for any possession, but instead for her very life to be spared from extermination. The way that Esther frames her situation is a very good one, and one that seems to catch Haman off-guard. In a way, Esther lays a trap for Haman by both flattering him by inviting him to be a guest in a private and exclusive banquet of which she is the hostess, while at the same time plotting to reveal that Haman has, through his hostility to her cousin and foster-father, endangered the life and well-being of the Queen. Somehow, and it is astonishing how, Haman never seems to understand the relationship between Mordecai and Esther, and is entirely unprepared for the possibility that the charming and beautiful queen who seeks to cultivate his company is really plotting his destruction as intentionally as he is unintentionally plotting her own destruction
without being aware of what he is doing.

It is also interesting to note that this first banquet of wine is mentioned far more briefly and in passing than the second one that is to come shortly which is much more dramatic. Although this first banquet is not described in much detail, it is worth discussing at least a little bit that Esther was wise and discerning in noting that the first banquet was not the proper time and place for her to bring her request before her royal husband. This is unusual enough that it is worth noting. Many people, when they have something on their minds as intensely as Esther did regarding her survival, are prone to want to rush a discussion in order to achieve resolution inside, rather than watching the mood and situation they are in to judge when it is the best time for that discussion to be a successful one. I do not pretend to be a perfect communicator by any means, but Esther’s wise approach in seeking to make sure that the situation is the most favorable for her request by delaying the serious and unpleasant matter she has to communicate and focusing on building good feelings between herself and the people she is eating and drinking with is a technique that is well worth developing, as difficult as it is to practice such heroic restraint.

What happens next is a passage that reveals a lot about the differences between Esther and Haman, and also to some extent between Haman and King Ahasuerus. We see this in Esther 5:9-14: Esther 5:9-14 reads: “So Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king. Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king. Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high, and in the morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet.” And the thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows made.”

Haman comes off particularly badly in this passage, and he does so because this passage really reveals who Haman is as a person, with qualities that most of us (and, perhaps most importantly, God Himself) finds pretty insufferable. Haman’s joy is immediately killed by seeing Mordecai, and rather than giving him a good thrashing, he shows what he considers to be heroic restraint in going home and bragging about how wonderful his life is and how successful he is and then plans to create a gallows on which to impale Mordecai. This is the sort of thing that pleases Haman, and his wife (at least for now) plays along with it. We may in our contemporary age be a bit harsh on the Persian king for finding the thought of marrying a beautiful, chaste, and agreeable young woman as being pleasing in his sight, but it is surely vastly worse that Haman finds the thought of impaling a righteous man on top of a tall stake to be exposed before the public in shame and misery to be pleasing in his sight. Ultimately, King Ahasuerus finds pleasure in good and finds it worth honoring and appreciating others who are around him, while Haman comes off as a boor who feels it necessary to brag and gloat and plot for his own ambitions and his own success without sufficient care for serving others besides himself. That distinction is enough to separate a good if imperfect king from one of the notable historical villains of the Bible.

Immediately after this, we see one of the most memorable and, at least to me, fitting chapters in all of scripture. Here we see the masterful timing of God at work, see a king troubled by his thoughts of what his beloved queen might be pondering in her heart to request from him, and we find a concern with honoring those who are worthy of honor, and seeking to cultivate virtue in the populace, all in a way that brings Haman into mourning for having to be the bearer of the bad news (for him) that King Ahaseurus’ thoughts and behavior have turned decisively from a willingness to bargain over the loot of the innocent Jews that was to be stolen from them while they are exterminated to thinking of how he may honor those who have served him loyally and (thus far) without reward. Let us take this chapter in whole and then discuss notable aspects of it in Esther 6:1-14.

Esther 6:1-14 reads: “That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ” Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.” So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!” Afterward Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.” While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.”

Why couldn’t the Persian king sleep? It is very tempting for us to see a combination of factors at work. One of these, and probably the most important, is divine providence, not only in keeping the king awake, but also making him aware that nothing had been done for Mordecai who had helped save the king’s life by informing on a couple of eunuchs who had wished to do him harm or even to overthrow him. In addition to this, there is also the element of the stress that the king was under trying to figure out what Esther was so concerned about. What is clear, though, is that the king’s fondness was firmly fixed on Mordecai as a result of gratitude for his act of service in protecting the king, and it is quite possible that he may have started to compare Mordecai with Haman in wondering what Haman had done to protect him and look out for his best interests in the way that Mordecai had done, even though he had not been rewarded for so doing.

Into this situation Haman enters and he is immediately wrongfooted. It should not surprise us that this is so, for two reasons. For one, Haman’s plans are contrary to God’s, and as his wife says, they will certainly fail–the Hebrew is emphatic here. While Haman enters the palace in the belief that he will be able to persuade the king to allow Haman to put his rival to death, the king is of the mindset to honor Mordecai for his loyalty to the empire. What Haman lacks here is accurate information–he is already facing the disadvantage that he is not aware of the Queen’s close connection to Mordecai and does not realize he has made in her a deadly and powerful enemy, and now he faces the further disadvantage that he does not realize that the king does not want to kill Mordecai, but rather to honor him so that others may be encouraged to act in ways that are beneficial to the well-being of the king, such as by informing the government of treasonous plots so that they may be stopped before they succeed.

It is predictable, and telling, that Haman is not aware that the king would want to honor anyone but him, and so he tells the king to honor the one the king delights to honor by wearing royal robes that the king has worn and riding a horse that the king has ridden, and being paraded around the city showing an obvious and close connection to the crown that he served, and having to perform these deeds for the man he hated most in Mordecai must have been deeply mortifying for him. While he sought to console himself in the thought that he had a wonderful banquet with the queen to look forward to, we know that the mortification of Haman has not finished yet.

Continuing on to Esther 7:1-10, we read the account of Esther’s second banquet, which seals Haman’s fate. Esther 7:1-10 reads: “So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!” Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.” So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?” And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” So Haman was terrified before the king and queen. Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?” As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him on it!” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.

At the beginning of the second banquet, the king is ready and eager to hear Esther’s petition, which should lead the reader into pondering that at least some of his insomnia the night before had to deal with his thoughts about her. When Esther reveals that what she wants is no selfish blessing from the king but rather the preservation of her own life and that of her people, the king is instantly motivated to destroy the threat to his beloved wife’s well-being, and when that enemy turns out to be the wicked Haman, Haman’s worst day becomes his final day. What follows is a demonstration of the folly of enraging the king, as the king’s decision to ponder rather than to pronounce a sentence immediately led Haman both to fear for his life but also think that he could still plead and bargain for his life. However, when he sought to beg Esther by lying across her couch, this inappropriate contact–which leads the king to openly ask if Haman intends on assaulting his wife, a horrific offense when even to touch the queen was a capital offense against the king. When the eunuchs covered the face of Haman, his death sentence was pronounced, and one of the eunuchs decided that it would be worthwhile to promote the interests of Mordecai by contrasting Haman’s desire to kill Mordecai with Mordecai’s behavior in helping to deliver the king, with a predictable result in that Haman was hung on the gallows he had planned for Mordecai. Rarely has someone been hoisted on their own petard so appropriately.

In Esther 8:1-6 what we see is the need to take care of unfinished business. Esther 8:1-6 reads: “On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. So the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman. Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews. And the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?””

Just as the conflict between Haman and Mordecai (and Esther) was an example of unfinished family business, which this passage alludes to with the reminder that Haman was an Agagite, so too the threat of genocide is unfinished business in the book of Esther. How is the threat to the people of God going to be resolved, given that the laws of the Medes and Persians do not change. The next passage, which completes Esther 8, tells us how the decree against the Jews could be dealt with based on the inability to amend laws and regulations in the world of the Persian Empire.

Esther 8:7-17 reads: “Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke.” So the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses bred from swift steeds. By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives—to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions, on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province and published for all people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s command. And the decree was issued in Shushan the citadel. So Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor. 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.”

This is what seems to be a fairy tale outcome. Since the old decree against the Jews could not be revised or abrogated, what was simply done was the promulgation of a new decree that stated that the Jews were permitted to defend themselves against their enemies. The fact that this was the new regulation was pretty clear that the Persian empire had changed its view on Jews, and as a result, we can see that people acted accordingly. With Mordecai rising to the second in command over the empire and Esther firmly placed as queen, the news got around to the rest of the empire that the Jews were not to be messed with. What follows, interestingly enough, is the first ever mention of the process of conversion when we see that because of the fear of the Jews, many people became Jews themselves. We might wish for a better motive for these people than fear to prompt their conversion, but it is interesting to note the atmosphere in which we first hear of conversions.

While the first part of Esther 9 deals with the violence of Purim, and the vengeance that the Jews exercised against their enemies–something we need to be reminded of little in our world where there is a great deal of violence at present–Esther 9:18-32 gives us a discussion of how it is that Purim became a historical festival of deliverance for the Jews who had experienced it as well as for their descendants. Esther 9:18-32 reads: “But the Jews who were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day, as well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of the month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and for sending presents to one another. And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor. So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting. So the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.”

How is it that something becomes a custom? This is what is explored here, the beginning of a tradition. There is no hint in these verses that Purim was a commanded assembly of God, but we see that the reminder of God’s action in history to deliver His people from destruction was–as we would expect–an acceptable reason for people to celebrate and to praise Him. There is a host of festivals and holidays that we keep in our own calendar and which have been kept throughout history that involve God’s working through the history of particular peoples and nations, and while these days are not commanded for us to celebrate, they are certainly acceptable for us to celebrate, especially if our celebration includes the elements included here of respecting the history involved with the day as well as showing gratitude and appreciation to God for intervening in history to protect His people from destruction. We live in a world that is governed by evildoers, and in which some of the proudest ambitions of violent and evil people is to do harm or to destroy God’s people, or to make it impossible for us to worship God as He commands. When God intervenes and delivers His people from these threats, we all ought to celebrate whenever we can.

The book of Esther concludes with a short historical note in Esther 10:1-3 about the service of Mordecai, who likely had a major role in ensuring that this book was written and survives to us. Esther 10:1-3 reads: “And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea. Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen.”

And so we conclude the book of Esther, with a reminder of the power of King Ahasuerus as well as the greatness to which Mordecai ascended and also the good that he did for his people. With the record that he had risen to second-in-command of the Persian empire, the end of the book of Esther reads like one of the historical books of the Bible like 1st and 2nd Kings, with its reference to the books of the chronicles of the Medes and Persians, and its positive verdict on the moral character of Mordecai as a ruler. What do we take from Esther, though? Do we see Esther as a pleasant, mostly compact story that is full of drama and incident, with the contrast between the virtuous Mordecai and Esther and the immense wickedness of Haman, or do we see it, in addition to that, as being a book that is relevant to our own time and experience as showing us the vulnerability of God’s people among the nations of the world, who could be stirred to resentment and hostility against us by our keeping other laws and following God’s ways, which can be seen as an offense, or even treasonous, to the corrupt authorities here on earth? With whatever perspective you view the book of Esther, hopefully you have gained something out of this study, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week.