The book of Esther is written to explain the background to the feast of Purim.
The book describes an attempt to wipe out the nation of Israel as a people.
It's a story of God's intervention on behalf of his people through the woman Esther.
The story takes place after the Babylonian captivity, several years after the Jews returned to their homeland, see the chronology in The Book of Ezra.
It's set in the First Persian Empire that had conquered Babylon, in where there are still many Jews.
There was a Jew named Mordecai, who raised Hadassah (Hebrew name), also known as Esther (Persian name). She was his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and she was fair and beautiful. When her father and mother were dead,
Mordecai took care of her as his own daughter. (Est 2:5–7).
The Persian king Ahasuerus (known as Xerxes I) gave a feast for all his officials and servants in the third year of his reign (Est 1:1–9). He felt offended by his wife because she didn't stand up for him when he needed her (Est 1:10–12). He then published a royal decree that his wife should no longer come before him, and that the king should give her royal estate to someone else. (Est 1:19–22). The maiden whom the king liked best would become the new queen (Est 2:2–4).
It would have been easy for her to carry out her husband's will and thereby strengthen his ability to rule the country in a good way. She didn't stand up for him as a leader. Ahasuerus neither followed the Old Covenant (since he wasn't a Jew) nor the New Covenant (it hadn't been introduced yet). He probably thought he wasn't doing anything wrong by divorcing her, he just followed their traditions and laws.
Daniel had received a revelation in the third year of Cyrus, a former king of Persia
(Dan 10:1), see Visions and Dreams by Prophet Daniel. It contained the message: "And now I will tell you the truth: Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all; by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece." (Dan 11:2).
This fourth king was Xerxes I. He used his riches to start a war, something that seems very common to do even among autocrats in our time. Perhaps Ahasuerus
had gathered his commanders at this feast about 483 BC to plan his great invasion of Greece which was carried out in 481–480 BC. Ahasuerus had a free will to choose whether to start a war or not, but God knew which choice he would make, see The Predestination Theory and God is omniscient (all knowing) in God's Attributes.
When the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together, Esther also was brought to the king's house. Esther hadn't revealed her nationality and family background, as Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. The king loved Esther above all women, and she found grace and favor in his eyes more than all the other women, so that he put the royal crown on her head and made her queen. (Est 2:8, 10, 16–17, 20).
Mordecai found out about a plot to kill the king and told queen Esther about it, who in turn reported it to the king and gave Mordecai credit. When the report proved true, the men behind it were impaled on poles. (Est 2:21–23).
The king honored Haman the Agagite and gave him a seat of honor above all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and worshiped
Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai wouldn't kneel or pay him honor. The royal officials told Haman about it to see if Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for Mordecai had told them he was a Jew. Haman
became angry at this. After learning who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of just killing Mordecai, he looked for a way to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom. He convinced the king to have a decree issued to destroy them. The king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman and told him to do with the Jews as he pleased. (Est 3:1–11).
A script was drawn up, written in the king's name and sealed with his own ring.
Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with orders to destroy, kill, and annihilate in a single day all the Jews, young and old, women and children, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of all nationality so that they would be ready for that day. (Est 3:12–15).
That Haman is an Agagite probably means that he is a descendant of Agag,
an enemy of Israel and king of the Amalekites. Amalek who was the ancestor
of the Amalekites, was the grandson of Esau who was twin brother of Jacob
(1 Chron 1:35-36). Samuel had told Saul that the Lord wanted to punish the
Amalekites because they attacked all the Israelites who were lagging behind
when they were weary and worn out when they came up from Egypt, see
3.2 Israel Defeats Amalek in Moses; Part 9: Provision from God. Saul would attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belonged to them.
He shouldn't spare them; dead men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys (1 Sam 15:1–3). God had given them hundred of
years to repent, but they didn't. Saul disobeyed God and didn't do as God told him.
If he had obeyed God, Haman might not have been around at this time.
When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Esther ordered a man to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. Mordecai
told the man all about the coming destruction of the Jews. He also gave the man a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, to show it to Esther and explain it to her. Mordecai also asked him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people. (Est 4:1–8).
The man went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to tell Mordecai that for any man or woman who approached the king in the inner court without being summoned, the king had a law: that they would be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days had passed since she was called to go to the king.
When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer:
"Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"
Then Esther answered Mordecai to gather the Jews and fast for her. They wouldn't eat or drink for three days, night or day. She and her attendants would also fast. When this was done, she would go to the king, even though it was against the law, even if the result would be that she perish. Mordecai went and carried out all of Esther’s instructions. (Est 4:9–17).
Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king sat on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.
When he saw Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out the gold scepter that he had in his hand. She asked the king to come to a banquet that day that she had prepared for him, along with Haman. The king accepted the invitation and went with Haman to this banquet. There she asked the king to come the next day to a banquet that she would prepare for them together with Haman.
(Est 5:1–8).
When Haman left, he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate, and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear of his presence. Haman was then filled with rage against
Mordecai. When he came home, he called his friends and wife together. He boasted to them of his vast wealth, his many sons, all the ways in which the king had honored him, and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.
He also told them that he was the only one whom Esther had invited to accompany the king to a banquet she was holding the next day. But all this gave him no satisfaction as long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate. His wife and all his friends told him to set up a pole that reached a height of fifty cubits
(25 meters), and to ask the king at the banquet the next day to let Mordecai impale it. This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up. (Est 5:9–14).
That night the king couldn't sleep, so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and be read to him. There it was found that Mordecai had exposed two of the king’s officers who who had conspired to assassinate the king, and that he hadn't been honored for doing so. (Est 6:1–3).
At that time Haman came to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him. As he entered, the king asked him what he should do for a man whom the king wished to honor. Haman thought the king was speaking of him and replied that such a one would be given a royal robe that the king had worn and
a horse that the king had ridden, one with a royal coat of arms placed on its head.
Then the robe and the horse were to be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes, to dress the man whom the king pleased to honor, and to lead him on the horse through the streets of the city, and proclaim before him that this is what is done for the man whom the king delights to honor. The king then commanded
Haman to get the robe and the horse and do exactly as he had suggested for
Mordecai the Jew, and not neglect anything that he had recommended. So Haman
got the robe and the horse, dressed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through
the streets of the city, proclaiming before him that this is what one does for the man whom the king wishes to honor. (Est 6:4–11).
Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, and told his wife and all his friends all that had happened to him. His advisers and his wife told him that he couldn't stand against Mordecai,
who would be his ruin because he is of Jewish origin. While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman over to the banquet Esther had prepared. (Est 6:12–14).
The king and Haman went to Esther’s banquet. Esther then told the king that she and her people had been sold to be destroyed by Haman, to be killed and annihilated. Haman then became terrified before the king and queen and begged Esther for his life. Haman’s face was covered and he was impaled on the pole at Haman’s house, which he had set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king. (Est 7:1–10).
That same day, the king gave Esther the estate of Haman. Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and handed it to Mordecai. Esther begged the king to put an end to Haman's evil plan, which he had devised against the Jews.
She asked for an order to be written overriding the dispatches that Haman devised and wrote, to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. The king answered Esther and Mordecai that he had given Haman's estate to Esther, and that Haman had been impaled on the pole he had set up. Now they were to write another decree in the king’s name in favor of the Jews, as they thought best, and seal it with the king’s
signet ring. No document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring could
be revoked, not even by the king. (Est 8:1–8).
The royal secretaries were summoned and wrote all Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush, see the video The Black Pharaohs: The Kingdoms of Kush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language. Mordecai wrote in the king's name, sealed the dispatches with the king’s signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king. The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves, to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies. A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that the Jews would be ready to take revenge on their enemies. (Est 8:9–15).
For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. In every province and in every city to which the king's edict came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them. (Est 8:16–17).
Then came the day that the edict commanded by the king was to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the game was turned and the Jews gained the upper hand over those who hated them. The Jews assembled in their cities in all the king's provinces to attack those who were determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all other nationalities were afraid of them. And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s administrators helped the Jews for fear of Mordecai had seized them. Mordecai was prominent in the palace, his reputation spread throughout the provinces and he became more and more powerful. The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killed and destroyed them, and they did whatever they wanted to those who hated them. (Est 9:1–19).
Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews throughout the king's provinces to make them annually celebrate the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies. They should give gifts of food to each other and gifts to the poor. Therefore, these days were called Purim. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation of every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews, nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants. Mordecai was second in rank to the king, preeminent among the Jews and highly esteemed by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke for the welfare of all Jews. (Est 9:20–10:3).
Six lessons to learn from the Book of Esther:
- God wants to work through us, as he did through Esther in a specific way.
It's a blessing to have a spouse who supports this behavior to follow God. - "God moments" can change/save lives. A "God moment" is when God orchestrates an opportunity to, for example, share the gospel for a person.
- It often takes courage. Esther must be willing to risk her life.
- Fasting and prayer are keys to victory.
- Obedience is required.
- God works EVERYTHING for his purpose.
