30 May

Bible In 365 Days                                         

Esther 1-5

Esther 1

The events recorded in the Book of Esther occurred between the completion of the Temple and the mission of Ezra (Ezra 6:1-22; Ezra 7:1-28). In all likelihood the narrative, as we have it, was taken directly from the Persian records. It is a fragment of secular history taken for sacred purposes. The story reveals the same principle of the overruling of God on behalf of His people which marks all their history.

The first scene is a great feast in the palace of the king. It was characterized by all the gorgeousness peculiar to the East, and resolved itself into drunken revelry. In the midst of this, the king commanded Queen Vashti to appear before him and the assembled nobles. The one redeeming feature in the revelation of conditions at the court of Ahasuerus was Vashti's refusal to obey the king. She paid the price of her loyalty to her womanhood in being deposed. Incidentally, the story reveals the place which woman occupied outside the Covenant of the chosen people. She was at once the plaything and the slave of man.

Esther 2

In this chapter we have a revelation of customs obtaining in the household of the king. We can read them with thankfulness that wherever the purifying forces of revealed religion have operated they have forever become impossible.

In the midst of this story Mordecai appears on the scene. Living with him was his cousin, whom he had taken to be his daughter. In carrying out the decree of the king, she was taken to the royal palace in the company of the maidens. Mordecai's action in this matter is open to question. His love for Esther was evident, and the picture of him walking before the court of the women's house indicated his continued interest in her. One can only hope that her presence there was not due to his scheming for place and power. In any case his advice that she should not betray her nationality was questionable, as her position at the court of the king was in grave peril for a daughter of the Covenant. Her beauty captured the king, and she was made queen in place of Vashti. Her presence in the palace was part of that process by which the overruling God preserves His people and frustrates the foe. This overruling is even more remarkable if the action of Mordecai was that of scheming.

Esther 3

In this section we have a picture of the procedure of government in the court of the king. Haman was promoted to supreme authority, and the portrait of the man is naturally and vividly presented to us-haughty and imperious, proud and cruel. Mordecai's refusal to bow down to him and do him reverence may in all probability be accounted for by the simple fact that he was a Jew, or perhaps it may be that Mordecai was familiar with facts concerning Haman which made it impossible for him to do him any honor. Be that as it may, the malice of the man was stirred, not merely against Mordecai, but against all his people, and he made use of his influence with the king to obtain authority practically to exterminate them. In the acts of evil men strange and inexplicable factors arise which can be accounted for satisfactorily only by belief in the government of God. The delay of months in carrying out his cruel intention was, in all likelihood, prompted by his desire to make the work of extermination thorough. Yet how wonderfully it gave time for all the events which ended in the deliverance of the people of God.

Esther 4

The news of the intended slaughter reached Esther in the royal palace, and she sent to make inquiries. Thus between the extreme need of her people and the king she became a direct link. The custom and law of the court forbade her to approach her lord save at his command. Still, the urgency of the case appealed to her, and with splendid heroism she determined to venture.

Conscious of her need of moral support, she asked that the people might fast with her. There is a note of sacrifice and abandonment in her words, "If I perish, I perish." Her decision was arrived at after strong pressure from Mordecai; and in all probability there is evident in it a desire to save her own life, for he had warned her that she was as greatly in peril as were the rest of her people. Granting all that can be said concerning the motive of her action, the supreme teaching of the story moves on, namely, of the care of God for His people, and of His use of a natural means to deliver them.

Esther 5

Here we have the story of Esther's venture and its success. Things might have been very different, but the graciousness of the king, notwithstanding Esther's violation of the law of the palace, was undoubtedly due to the disposition of that God in whose hand are the ways of kings, whether they will or no.

Her request was at first of the simplest. She invited the king and Haman to a banquet. Haman's overweening pride appears in the account which follows. He gathered his friends, and boasted of his riches and advancement; and now of this last favor, that he alone was invited to accompany the king to Esther's banquet. At the back of selfish ambition some cankering pain forever torments. In the case of Haman it was Mordecai's refusal to acknowledge him or do him reverence, and he frankly admitted to his friends that nothing else satisfied him while Mordecai remained in his way. Acting on the advice of wife and friends, he committed the unutterable folly of attempting to make the time of the banquet merry for himself by having first erected a gallows for Mordecai.