Esther found herself on the inside, a girl of beauty dropped into the midst of a political storm. Her parents dead, she had become the ward of her uncle Mordecai. She and her uncle were Jews living in the Medo-Persian empire, a massive conglomeration of 127 territories that stretched from India to Ethiopia.
And she became queen. Not through guile or cunning or seduction like some Jezebel wannabe did Esther come to the palace at Susa, the Persian capital. She really floated to her place.
She got there by just being herself.
Vashti occupied the queen’s office until a months’ long party went awry. Thrown by her husband and her, the celebration and feasting included way too much wine and such drinking led to some unintended consequences. Feeling exceptionally merry, King Ahaserus one day got the wild notion that all should see the queen as only he had seen her. He summoned Vashti to parade herself before the men of his court wearing only her crown.
She refused — and she was right to. But the times being what they were, Vashti’s stand proved costly. She was deposed by the aggrieved and embarrassed king. He had lost face, and he and his counselors legislated Vashti away with a pronouncement that men rule in the palace and in all homes.
The king sobered up, however, and grew lonely, even wondering whether he would ever have another woman like Vashti by his side. Persian law, however, made it absolutely illegal for him to restore his now ex-wife.
Oh, how a man’s foolish and inebriated decisions come to haunt him. A moody king is friend to none and makes for a lousy and dangerous ruler. The members of the royal court, thus, devised a way to keep Ahaserus entertained and to fill the queen’s seat.
A pageant was proposed, imagine an ancient version of TV’s “The Bachelor.” (God bless you if you cannot imagine such a thing because you’ve never seen the show.) The loveliest ladies of the empire’s lands were summoned to Susa. They enjoyed months of spa treatments— baths, oils, perfumes lavished upon them.
Once glamorized and outfitted, each beauty then had her date with his royal highness. The name of the game was Please the King. The grand prize? The queen’s place in the palace of Persia.
Uncle Mordecai smelled an opportunity and entered his young niece in the queen sweepstakes. And that’s how Esther came to be on the inside. Once she was there, the girl’s grace and humility won over those in charge of the affair.
Esther sought for and accepted advice — gladly. Given the adversarial and stubborn way of Vashti, this quality put Esther in good standing with those seeking the right partner for the king.
Her manner captured Ahasuerus’ heart, too. He chose Esther to be his queen. This simple Jewish orphan girl now was bride to the most powerful ruler of his day.
It was not long before Esther made a major difference in Persian politics. A plot to kill the king was discovered by Mordecai, who sent word to his niece the queen. Esther exposed the scheme to Ahaseurus. The traitors were caught and executed, and the whole affair documented in the palace chronicles. That documentation would prove to be a significant element to this story and to the preservation of the Jewish people.
For also on the inside now was a devil, Haman, an enemy with ambition and hatred for the Jews. As an Agagite, he should have been long gone. He was there only because one of Esther’s ancestors disobeyed the command of God. The Lord instructed King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, whose king was Agag. Nothing and no one was to be spared. Saul and his warriors kept the good people alive and good stuff for themselves to, ahem, make an offering.
Hundreds of years later, here’s an Agagite alive and conspiring. Mordecai and Esther’s intervention in the assassination plot may even have opened a position for Haman’s promotion. There’s truth and consequences for avoiding the truth. Saul’s leadership fail set his own people up for annihilation.
The palace of Persia became a war zone. It became a battlefield on a supremely spiritual level.
Haman possessed wealth and power was according honor from nearly everyone. Mordecai, Esther’s uncle and guardian, was the exception in the Susa court. He feared God alone and refused to offer homage to this political appointee.
Haman, in anger, crafted a political solution; he devised a law and got the king to sign off on it. It was carefully worded for approval. To top it off, Haman pledged loads of his own silver to fund its implementation. The law targeted the realm’s Jews for execution. These people were different in their ways of worship and the kingdom would be strengthened by subtracting them was the whole thing was advertised to the king. Ahaserus, a ruler of presumptuous decisions (see the Vashti affair), hastily agreed with his counselor.
Haman had to set the date for this destruction. So sure of success Haman made a game out of this part of his plot. He determined the execution date by casting the pur or the lots. Pebbles or sticks were tossed to settle the issue. I can almost hear Haman cackle with his cronies as the the date comes up — the 13th day of the month of Adar. This was some 12 months away.
Word of the law went out and once Mordecai learned of it he tore his clothes, began to wail, and took on sackcloth at the palace gates. Esther got news of her uncle’s demonstration. Her first reaction was this: she sent him some clothes. He responded with a copy of Haman’s decree and a plea for her to do something about it.
“Go to the king and beg his favor,” Mordecai told her.
Seems like a reasonable request – Esther was queen after all. Did she not have access to the king? Yes, and no. One had to be summoned to see Ahasuerus. To come before him uninvited meant instant death, according to the strange and twisted laws of the empire. There was one hope, however. The king could choose to extend his golden scepter in mercy and thereby receive the one who came unannounced.
Doubt shadowed the young queen’s mind and heart. It’d been a month since Ahasuerus asked for her Esther related to Mordecai.
Here, Esther’s uncle made it clear to her that she was where she was for a reason and a purpose. He told that she could not keep silent. Her grace and good looks won her a spot near the throne, but those things would not save her. Now, however, it was “such a time” for courage and conviction, Mordecai said.
A crisis never develops character. It will, however, test hearts and expose what’s contained in them.
Esther’s heart was found to be full of truth and faith. She took the lead and called upon the Jews of her city to assemble for three days of prayers and fasting. Inside, the palace, the queen fasted along with the women assigned to her royal entourage.
She would break the law; she would go to Ahasuerus with these words in her heart and mind – “If I perish, I perish.”
Pray, fast, believe, and go with reckless abandon. This spiritual strategy proved to be a blessed one. Its success went above and beyond what any could ask or think. When Esther made herself seen, the king had favor, reached forth his scepter for her to touch, and asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.”
She said she would answer the king only after he and Haman would dine at a feast she would prepare.
Esther’s plan included dinner with a devil. Jesus, too, had a devil — Judas — at His table in the upper room. He even washed that feet of that devil.
Haman got word of Esther’s invitation and boasted to family and friends of its significance. It wasn’t enough for him. He obsessed over Mordecai and, with his wife’s help, dreamed up a way to get rid of this one Jew before he rid the kingdom of all Jews. He had a tall gallows hastily built and then ran to the palace to get the king’s approval for the execution.
Only then would Haman be able to enjoy dinner with Esther and the king.
It is at this point that we get a taste of the power of the written word. The night before Esther’s feast, King Ahasuerus couldn’t sleep and called for a bedtime story. The book of memorable deeds was read aloud to him and heard anew the story of how Mordecai exposed the plot on the king’s life. The pages included nothing of Mordecai’s reward for he had not been rewarded at all.
Then and there, the king thought to right this wrong. He tasked Haman, of all people, how to honor one who’d done something great for the kingdom. Haman, sure that he was the one the king meant to celebrate, forgot for a moment his plot to execute Mordecai and described an elaborate and elegant parade with a royal horse, royal robes, and royal crown.
Ahaseurus giggled with delight and at once commanded Haman to do all of it for “Mordecai the Jew.” Talk about having your legs cut off from under you. What a sight this must have been: Haman leading the horse with his now crowned enemy and proclaiming, “Thus it shall be done for he whom the king delight to honor.”
And so began Haman plummet from glory. He raced home in disgrace. The gallows he ordered had been finished, but Mordecai would not swing from it. He found none comfort to him, as his wife and counselors, those who so recently encouraged his action against Mordecai, now forecast doom for Haman.
Before he knew it, Haman was being whisked away to his feast with Esther and the king. With the feast, of course, came the wine. There was wine at the beginning of our story in Esther. The wine flowed freely for 180 days and led to the whole Vashti incident. Here, the wine time marked another dismissal from the palace.
Ahasuerus again asked Esther to tell him what she wanted. Slowly and surely, she rolled out her issue. She asked him to preserve her life and the lives of her people who had been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. With her request, Esther is careful not to implicate the king in put the decree in force. She also points out just how the kingdom will suffer without the work and wisdom and skill of the Jews.
“Who’s responsible for this?” asked the king.
“Our foe and enemy! Haman,” she answered.
The devil in the palace was now exposed. The king angry and, perhaps, confused moved to his garden to think. Haman trembled and begged Esther for her help. He fell upon her couch just as Ahasuerus returned. The king viewed the scene as an attack on Esther. He ordered Haman to be hung upon the very gallows he built to kill Mordecai.
Esther’s work in the palace was not finished. Haman’s law was still in force. Medo-Persian decrees are irrevocable, as we read in the story of King Darius with Daniel and the lions’ den in Daniel 6. Something more had to be done. Haman was gone, but the legislation he crafted was still on the books.
The queen again had to “break palace law” and go uninvited before Ahasuerus. She was bolder with this approach as she fell and wept at the king’s feet. He again stretched his scepter to the queen and Ahasuerus gave her this: “You may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”
Haman’s plot to wipe out the Jews was neutralized by a fresh decree that gave the Jews the right and resources to defend themselves. And due to the lot – the pur — cast by Haman regarding his decree, the Jews would have 11 months to ready and arm themselves.
In time, Mordecai and Esther became the chief figures in all the realm of Persia. The day of the pur did come and it was the Jews who stood in triumph. In fact, many people took steps to become Jewish in order to avoid the vengeance of this people.
Esther is book in which the name of God is excluded, likely because the account was lifted right from the royal chronicles of Persia. Though we do not read His name in this book, we cannot deny the sovereign hand of His at work in the situations that present themselves.