The Story of Esther

Author unknown

Esther is one of only 2 books in the Bible named for women. (The other is Ruth).

A book that doesn’t actually mention God’s name. An invitation to read and look for
God’s activity or signs of it everywhere. A story full of coincidences and ironic
reversals to see God’s purpose at word but God is behind the scenes.

It is set during after the 100 year of Babylonian exile of the Israelites from their
land. A time when the Jews suffered much racial hatred. They had been a minority in
Persia for years.

A Jewish community living in Susa, capital city of the ancient Persian empire.

4 Main Characters through the story:

King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) – reigned in power in Susa, Persia. Drunken Push over

Esther – taken from her home and came to live in the palace. Jewish.

Mordecai – Jewish and Esther’s Uncle. Adopted and raised Esther after she had lost
her parents.

Haman – descendant of King Agag. Plotted to kill the Jews. Cunning villain

Esther 1 – King’s Banquet

King Ahasuerus threw 2 grand feasts that lasted 187 days and it’s all for the purpose
of displaying his greatness and splendor.

On the last day of the banquet feast, he was drunk and he demands his wife, Queen
Vashti appear at the party to show off her beauty but she refuses.

So in a drunken rage, the king deposes Vashti and makes a decree that all Persian
men should now be the master of their own homes and holds a beauty pageant
because he wants to find a new queen.

Esther 2 – A new queen

Esther and Mordecai enters the story.
Esther hides her Jewish identity and enters the beauty pageant and wins. The king
was so obsessed with Esther that he elevates her to be the new queen of Persia.
Now it just so happens that Mordecai overhears 2 royal guards plotting to murder
the king. So Mordecai informs Esther and then informs the king. Mordecai gets
credit for saving the king.

Right here God’s not mentioned anywhere, but you can see it is providentially
ordered and be curious on what’s God up to.

Esther 3 –
Haman, the agagite, descendant of the ancient caananite.
The King elevates Haman to the highest position in the kingdom. He demands that
everybody kneels before him. When Mordecai sees Haman, he refused to knee,
which made Haman angry.

Haman found out that Mordecai was Jewish.

Haman successfully persuades the King to enact a crazy decree to destroy and
eradicate all the Jewish people. And to decide the date on the Jewish annihilation.
Haman rolls the dice (called PUR in Hebrew).

11 months later on the 13th of Adar, all the Jews will die.

There had a drinking banquet to celebrate their horrible decision.

Esther 4
Focuses on Esther and Mordecai, the only hope of the Jewish people.

They make a plan that Esther’s going to reveal her Jewish identity to the king and
ask him to reverse the decree. But approaching the King without a royal request is
according to Persian Law, is an act worthy of death.

So Mordecai was confident even if Esther remains silent, that deliverance from the
Jews will arrive from another place. Then Mordecai wonders aloud, who knows
maybe you’ve become queen for this very moment. Esther responds with bravery
and purposes to go the king with her amazing word, if I perish, I perish.

Esther 5
Reversal of Haman’s evil plan

Esther hosted 2 banquets.

1st banquet
Haman leaves the banquet totally drunk and sees Mordecai in the street. He fumes
with anger and orders a tall stake be built so that Mordecai can be impaled upon on
it in the morning.

Esther 6 – the story pivots

The King can’t sleep. So he asked the Royal Chronicles to be read to him like a
bedtime story and he just happens to hear how Mordecai had saved the king’s life .
He had totally forgotten.

So in the morning, Haman enters to request Mordecai execution. And the King in
that moment orders Haman to honor Mordecai for saving his life. So Haman had to
lead Mordecai in the city in a royal horse telling everyone to praise.

This started Haman’s downfall and Mordecai’s rise to power.

Esther 7-

Esther’s 2nd banquet

King and Haman arrived.

Esther revealed that she is Jewish and Haman had enacted a decree to murder her,
mordecai and all jews. So the King who was drunk and in rage, ordered Haman be
impaled in the very stake he made for Mordecai. Irony.

Haman’s execution however does not solve the decree to kill all the Jews.

Esther 8 – Reversing the decree

They discovered that the King cannot revoked a decree he made. So instead the king
commissions Mordecai to issue a counter-decree on the appointed date when the
Jews were supposed to be killed. Now the Jews were ordered to defend themselves
and to destroy any who plotted to kill them.

Mordecai was elevated to a high position.

Decreed day arrived. Jews triumphed over their enemy.

Jews destroyed Haman’s family and other Persian officials who joined Haman’s plot.

Moral Ambuiguity:
A lot of drinking, sex, murder, violation of commands.

Esther and Mordecai

Are models of trust and hope when things get really bad.

The Point:
When God seems absent, does God abandon his people?
The book of Esther says, no. It invites us to see that God can and does work in the
real mess and moral ambiguity of human history. He uses the faithfulness of
morally compromised people to accomplish his purpose.
The book of Esther asks us to be willing trust God even if we can’t see him working
and to hope that no matter how bad things get, God is committed to redeeming his
world.

Lessons we can learn from the story of Esther

1. God is the only one who has the power to turn trials into blessings

There is a constant thread of redemption through Esther’s story and that speaks to
our lives still today.

Esther was an orphan.

Her people faced a great tragedy.

God is at work even when we can’t see the whole story. Esther 4:14

God’s blessings is greater than our troubles. Always.

2. Our prayers matter. Our voice matters. Our actions matter. God is our deliverer.

Mordecai believed that even if Esther didn’t help them. God would send help from a
different way.

Queen Esther had a choice. When Mordecai sent word to her about the great
danger their people were facing, she could have simply tried to save herself. She
could have kept quiet, just hoped for the best, or turned the other way. But she
and Mordecai both knew that God had given her great purpose in her position.
She was wise; she made a plan and didn’t stay stuck in fear or worry. She
prayed and fasted, and she asked for their people to do the same. She was
willing to act, to follow God’s lead, and to save the lives of her people, even if it
meant she might lose hers.
“Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ‘Go, gather together all the Jews who
are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I
and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even
though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish,’” Esther 4:15-16.

Though our current situations may look different than what Esther faced, we
might still be struggling with great fear or uncertainty. The future may look dark. A
hard diagnosis or recent loss may have sent us spiraling. Yet often God places
us in positions of influence, or in strategic locations, with great purpose in mind.
Many times, the places where we find ourselves is not really all about us. It’s
about Him. It’s about His bigger plan.
4. God is able to bring great favor and blessing on our lives, even in hard places.

From the moment Esther was in the King’s palace, she was given protection and
favor. The Bible even says that she won the favor of all those she was around,
and God blessed her greatly, allowing her to be made queen. That’s important
because without great favor from the King, Esther could have been put to death
simply for asking to come into his presence without being asked.
“On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the
palace, in front of the king’s hall…When he saw Queen Esther standing in the
court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in
his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. Then the
king asked, “What is it Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the
kingdom, it will be given you,” Esther 5:1-3.
Because of great favor, Esther was allowed to carry out the plan that would save
her people. The King was willing to come to the banquet prepared for Haman
and himself, not once, but twice. The purposes of God were being set; Haman
would soon meet his demise, and the Jews would be saved. When we belong to
God through Christ, we have a protection the world around us may never
understand. It doesn’t mean we won’t face trials. We surely will, but when we do,
His strength and blessing still come out even stronger.

5. God will always be faithful to lead us and to fight on our behalf

God is at work, often in ways we can’t fully see. His timing is laying out every
crucial plan at just the right minute. It’s never haphazard or thrown together. It’s
intricately woven into the stories and purposes of our entire lives.
As Queen Esther and Mordecai moved through these critical days and worked
on behalf of their people, every plan was carefully timed, and each purpose was
carried out to the glory of the Lord. In the end, the tables were turned. Those who
were plotting against the Jews were destroyed.
“No one could stand against them, because the people of all other nationalities
were afraid of them,” Esther 9:2.
The plan to kill the Jews had been stopped. There was great fear of God all
around, His reputation became known throughout the land, even to the point
that “many people of other nationalities even became Jews because fear of the
Jews had seized them,” Esther 8:17. With God, even our enemies will flee. His
power can never be thwarted or destroyed. He is with us, guiding us, carrying us,
and covering us from behind at every moment.
May God help us to follow His lead, believing that His timing is perfect and
remembering that He’s always faithful to fight for us, still today. May He help us
to know when to keep quiet and wait, and when to speak out on behalf of others,
and in sharing His truth. He won’t leave us on our own to fend for ourselves in
difficult places. His power can’t help but to come to our rescue. His faithfulness
and mercies are new every morning.

6. Pride is a trap. Humility is Key.

This is a huge lesson in the story of Esther: pride is a trap and will lead to our
demise. Every character through this book had to decide whether they would
choose to live with pride or humility. Those who chose pride faced final defeat.
Those who walked with humility and integrity before God rose above every hard
circumstance with His grace and power.
By the time Mordecai told Esther about the evil plot against the Jews, Esther was
in high places. She could have turned her back on her people, proud of where
she was in life and happy about her own success and power. Yet she did just the
opposite. That is true humility. Being willing to look at the needs of others before
yourself, not thinking too highly of yourself, even if the world would say you have
much to be proud of.
Haman chose just the opposite. He devised a plan to ultimately make himself
look better and destroy a people who wouldn’t bend a knee to him. He was proud
and full of selfishness and hate. Ultimately, it destroyed him. The whole story
plays out like a great movie plot. It’s amazing how God used every bit of
Haman’s evil plan to turn it back on his own life. The Jews were saved, and
Mordecai was given honor.

We must decide.
The last verse of the book reads, “Mordecaithe Jew was second in rank to King
Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow
Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare
of all the Jews,” Esther 10:3.
Whatever places of leadership or positions of authority God has given us in life,
one thing is true: It was never meant to be all about us. Every part of our lives
should point ultimately to God and His truth. We must decide throughout our
lives: Will I take pride in my life, my accomplishments, and what God has blessed
me with; or will I walk in humility and allow Him to shine through it all? Mordecai
and Esther both knew the key: “Less of me, more of Him.” Their willingness to
live humbly before God allowed Him to work powerfully in saving His people from
destruction.

7. God is sovereign over all and He lovingly cares for His people.
This life-changing truth is a major theme of the book of Esther: God is Sovereign.
He reigns over all, and nothing takes him by surprise. We never read about God
not knowing what to do. He’s not up in heaven, wringing his hands together,
trying to figure out a plan. Evil came against His people. And He raised up those
who would be faithful to act. Spiritual darkness will try hard to blot out the
existence of Truth and the power of a believer’s life through Christ. But in the
end, it won’t win. God holds the final victory.
Light is greater than Darkness. Every time. It is the only way to wade through
every deep river of difficulty. Walk in the power of His Sovereignty and His light.