|
Esther By the “accident” of her beauty and the “accident” of the former
queen’s dismissal, Esther found herself queen of one of the largest powers in
the entire world. Then, when all seemed to be going fairly well, her crucial
moment to stand for what she believed in came. This is the story of Esther. King
Xerxes ruled over many provinces stretching from India to Cush. He owned huge
amounts of gold and silver riches and a palace of great size. Three years into
his reign, he gave a banquet for the officials and nobles of the land. After the
one hundred and eighty day celebration, King Xerxes threw another party for
everyone in the citadel of Susa to display his many riches. During this time,
King Xerxes’s wife was giving a banquet for the women in the royal palace of
King Xerxes.
Queen Vashti was a very beautiful woman, and the king wanted to show her off
to his many guests. The message came to her, but she refused to see him. King
Xerxes became very furious and sent out a decree that stated, “Vashti is never
again to enter the presence of King Xerxes.” (Esther 1:19) He then decided to
find a beautiful young virgin to take her place. Esther, niece of Mordecai, was
brought to the king’s presence under the decree. Esther was soon chosen and was
immediately given beauty treatments and fancy food. After completely the
twelve-month beauty treatment, she became queen instead of Vashti. During this
time Esther kept her family background and nationality a secret, just as
Mordecai had instructed her to do. Following this event, Mordecai overheard two
men plotting to kill King Xerxes. He soon told the king, but Haman received all
the credit and was given a high place in the court.
When asked to bow to Haman, Mordecai refused and stated that he was a Jew.
Haman soon became very mad. He then talked King Xerxes into the idea of killing
all the Jews in the land. Mordecai sent word to Esther, begging her to save her
people by talking to King Xerxes. She then went to the king and asked to throw a
banquet in honor of Haman. The night after the banquet, King Xerxes could not
sleep. He called for the book of chronicles and found that Haman was not
responsible for revealing the plot against him. It was Mordecai. Haman was then
hanged. After the death of Haman, Esther told King Xerxes of her heritage and he
soon removed the decree of the death of all Jews. The Jews soon became powerful
people and triumphed over the people who planned to kill them.
After many deaths of the enemies of the Jews, Esther then requested that
Haman’s ten sons to be hanged. The fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of
Adar was set aside as the time when the Jews got relief from this enemies. Today
this is called the day of Purim. Esther was a very brave woman, and she stood in
times of hardship for her people, the Jews. This is shown in this heroic
statement: “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I
perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16) This is a very strong thing for Esther. But at
the beginning, though, she was a very shy and timid girl. She went against God
by not telling her background, the Jews. This is a downfall. Another is that she
was married to a pagan king and became a part of his harem. The lessons learned
in this story are that God loved the chosen people and did all he could to help
them. This is showed very indirectly throughout the story. Also, it tells us not
to hide that we are people of God, but proclaim it for all to see and hear.
|
