Esther

Sunday we leave the historical books and move into Esther. Well, it’s historical, too – but it has several differences from those we’ve read for the past several weeks. Books and movies have told, retold and romanticized the young girl and the mighty king. The 2006 “One Night With The King” is the latest movie. I have my own favorite scenes just from reading the book.

I admire Vashti’s refusal to respond to the king’s command:

To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. (Esther 1:11 KJV)

Talk about a trophy wife! For seven days male guests have been drinking:

And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king. (Esther 1:7 KJV)

And now the king wants her to show up just to show off? As a result of her refusal, she never saw the king again:

If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. (Esther 1:19 KJV)

So the search for a replacement begins:

And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. (Esther 2:3-4 KJV)

The story continues with love, hate, intrigue, murder – plots thick enough to keep books and movies coming for thousands of years.

God is not mentioned in Esther. His name does not appear in the book at all. Israel is not mentioned. Jerusalem is mentioned only describing Mordecai:

Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity (Esther 2:6a KJV)

Esther is the first book in the Old Testament that uses the word Jew. Esther is neither a judge of her people, nor a prophet. When she becomes queen, it is not as a queen of Jews. There are many things that set this book apart from the others.

Worth the time to study? Absolutely!!! God’s planning is evident in the events. Allow God’s work to be done through us, or watch it work through another and be forgotten:

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14 KJV)