When Life Turns Upside Down - Esther 1 to 3

Do you sometimes wonder if God is really involved in a personal way in the circumstances that are taking place in your life? Who is to blame for the threat of terrorism that overshadows every free nation today? Is God involved in any way? Was God involved in the terrorist attacks that destroyed the twin towers in New York? Has he used that incident in any way to awaken the American Spirit of survival? Life for the entire population of New Orleans turned upside down when Katrina blew in over a year ago and many may require years to be right side up again. Was God involved? Is there any way that God can use either of these two disasters for the betterment of mankind? Has God ever used ungodly people…with unacceptable behavior…committing deadly sins…as instruments to save a remnant of his people?

The books located on the fiction shelf that usually make the ‘best-seller-list’ and that frequently become award winning movies usually have several things in common. Their plots are loaded with a combination of intrigue—power control—wealth—drama—and romance—usually with sexual implications. Those same descriptive words can be used to tell a true story…not one of fiction…and they were used 2477 years ago by some unknown author as he told the story about how an orphan girl—that was literally unknown by the general public—moved from an adoptive home to a Queen’s palace. Read the book of Esther and you will find that it is much more than just an entertaining novel. It is a book that proves that there is always profound interplay between God and his people when they are in need. This book tells the story of how God knew that his people were in danger of being destroyed and what he did to prevent it from happening.

Just a bit of trivia here, however, here are some things that are relevant to the time and setting of this story. There are only two books in the bible named for a woman, Esther and Ruth—and both of them would serve as the basis of a great movie that the entire family could watch. The book of Esther is the only one in the bible that does not mention the name of “God” in any form—not even a title or a pronoun referring to God. It is some-how difficult for a Christian to imagine a bible book that does not mention at least one of the common names we expect to read about such as—God, Jehovah, I Am, Messiah, Jesus, Christ, or at least the Holy Spirit. However, there are many places that the author indicates that a higher power [God} is in charge. One simply uses common sense and knows that God is in charge of all the situations that arise concerning God’s sovereignty and human will—especially the will of the Jewish people living in the Middle East during the period of time from about 586 BC. when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed the temple city and took the proven leaders, and the rich, skilled, and educated people as slaves back to Babylon.

More of the Jews were either killed in battle, or left behind in Judah, than were made captives—and seventy-eight years later, in 538 BC, when Cyrus allowed anyone that desired to go home—many more of the captives remained in Babylon than returned to Jerusalem. It is not known for sure what happened to Esther’s parents—they probably were not killed or left behind in Judah, by the Babylonians. They possibly were taken captive, and then met their demise sometime after arriving in Babylon. {I could not find an answer to this question…if you know…please tell me.} It is evident that Esther became an orphan at an early age and was adopted [befriended] or as the bible says “brought up” by her cousin, Mordecai, who was a Jewish exile still in Persia. Remember that Babylon was conquered by Persia in 539 BC and the Persian country had grown rapidly up to the time Xerxes became King in 486—and five years later, Esther became queen in 479. It is important for us to remember that the story of Esther developed BEFORE Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall and re-establish the Law and re-instate Godly worship only in the new temple. This was covered in the last two books we have studied…it is too bad that we did not study Esther first, because we would have found out what happened that caused the king to release the Jews and allow them to return. Listen! Don’t miss this. The book of Esther follows Nehemiah in the bible…BUT…the events in Esther takes place abut thirty years prior to the events recorded in Nehemiah.

The story setting is in the vast Persian Empire. Xerxes is king; he is gaudy, wicked and subject to flaunting his wealth and power. The Jewish exiles have been able to live and do well under Persian rule, but they are about to be completely destroyed. The capitol of Persia is in the town of Susa which is about one hundred miles East of the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; and two hundred miles north of the Persian Gulf. [Note: Susa was located about 200 miles east of the GARDEN OF EDEN.] And most of the action in this book takes place in the king’s palace, and related buildings. The key people in this true to life drama…on stage are: Esther, Mordecai, her cousin, King Xerxes I, Vashti, the queen before Esther, and Haman—the king’s number one man in power under the king; he aspired to de-throne the king and take his place some day soon, and was well on his way when he was apprehended. Although God is not even mentioned—he is not one of the actors in this play—but if you have any knowledge of the bible—you will be able to see his face between almost every line. Use your mind’s eye, build the palace, be sure to include the banquet halls for men and women separate, the gaudy but colorful bed rooms and living quarters for each of the King’s concubines. Build him a master bed room and include a huge spa for the king and his women. Now turn in your bible to chapter one verse one and let us start telling the story of Esther and learn anew that God really does care about what is going on in your life, in this country and around the world. You will also learn anew that God will not keep you from harm…he may not even remove you from harm’s way, but he will support you as you go through your problems.

1:1…A huge event happened. Xerxes was king of Persia, the dominant military and economic power in the world at that time. It had 127 provinces at the time and covered about everything from Egypt to Turkey and from the Mediterranean Sea to the vast areas stretching Eastward beyond the Tigris river. Xerxes had assigned or appointed the governor to each province—he had power over them and they were subject to him. The royal throne was in the citadel [or palace] of Cush.

1:4…In his third year as king, Xerxes declared a time of celebration to be held throughout his kingdom. This celebration lasted 180 days and was to show the people how vast and wealthy his kingdom was. The king probably traveled throughout his domain and was accompanied by the governors of all the provinces and the leaders of his military forces. At the end of the 180 day celebration, all the male population living in the city of Susa were invited to the king’s palace to share in a banquet that lasted seven days. Be sure you read all about the decorations in the garden, with linen and purple, marble and mother-of pearl pavement and wine goblets made of pure gold…each one handcrafted and different. The regular law of the land was that subjects could not drink wine in the presence of the king unless they were personally invited or instructed to do so. In this case, at this banquet, for seven days, the wine stewards were instructed to keep pouring the wine as long as the men would drink.

1:9…In those days the women were considered as second class citizens and were not permitted to attend some of the festivities that were carried out for the men. Vashti was a beautiful and modest woman in many ways, but she too, enjoyed showing the ladies how wonderful it was to be Queen. So she planned a special banquet for the ladies to be held in the royal palace of King Xerxes. There is no record of any kind of misbehavior or laws broken at the ladies ball.

1:10…On the last day of the men’s wine-bash, King Xerxes was in high spirits. Half-drunk! Imagine the scene. The hanging-gardens are full of men at every stage of intoxication, telling dirty jokes and laughing, with a noise factor out of sight. The king made a half-drunk decision: one he would have never made if he had been sober and one he probably wished he had never made. He decided to give his drinking buddies a real treat…something they could really yell and scream about. [Here is a dreadful example of just what can happen to anyone that drinks. Sure, you know that you should not drive while drinking, but neither should you make any kind of decisions that could be life threatening. Alcohol is not oil, it does not grease the brain; it is a toxin that causes the brain to rust and malfunction.] Xerxes sent the seven eunuchs that served him to the palace of Queen Vashti with orders for her to come back with them to the men’s banquet wearing the queen’s crown. According to Jewish historians the order was that she was to be wearing nothing but her crown. Even if she was fully dressed wearing the crown and the most beautiful of all robes, she could have been ogled by the lust of drunken men. Queen Vashti refused to obey the order of the king…and he was furious.

1:13-21…Vashti did not give her reason, she simply refused to go. It could have been because that it was against the Persian custom for a woman to appear before a public gathering of men. She may have thought that once the king was sober he would realize that she had this problem and forgive her... Think about this: Xerxes became king in 486 BC. This party was held in his third year—which would have been 483 BC—and Vashti must have been pregnant at that time because she gave birth to her son Artaxerxes who was born in the same year—483 BC. If so, it is easy to understand why she would not want to be seen in a public gathering of men. It made no difference; the king would loose all credibility if he allowed a woman to refuse a king’s order. He turned to his advisors for help in how he should handle the matter. The advice was that he should issue a royal decree that deposed the queen, and ordered her to never enter his presence again, and that this word be made known throughout all provinces so that other women would be forewarned. This was done.

2:1…It appears that the old boy sobered up and realized that he had lost a wonderful Queen, bearing his child, and doing his bidding for years…up until the drunken order came down. It was a custom for all provinces to be notified that they should choose their most beautiful virgins and bring them to the royal palace where they would be groomed for the king. This order went out in search of one that the king would choose to be the next queen.

2:3-17…Persians kings were wealthy because they collected vast amounts of gold, silver, precious metals, diamonds and other costly jewelry as well as animals for war, food, and clothing. The Persian tax rate on their citizens was much tougher than the IRS is on us. They also collected great numbers of the most beautiful women in the land to be their sexual pleasure. The young virgins were required to live in special housing provided for them near the palace—this was called the harem. The sole purpose was to serve the king and wait his call for sexual pleasure. Esther was one of the ones chosen to be groomed. {Mordecai, her cousin who raised her did the selecting.}The majority of the girls in the harem seldom saw the king more than one time. If they were rejected, life became boring as they wiled away their life eating and looking pretty. If Esther was rejected, she would join the group of girls that saw the king one time and maybe never again. But Esther was more beautiful than all others and pleased the King…he chose her…and she was crowned Queen to replace Vashti. The crowning ceremonial was elaborate and Esther was given a special banquet and introduced with honors to all the provinces. As queen she would have more freedom and authority than other girls in the harem. But she would be more restricted than previous queens because Vashti had gotten out of line and caused the problem.

Mordecai was one of the many Jews now in Persia who was probably a grand-son of an exile; Jews had increased in numbers in the last 100 years since the exile. Some even had positions in the government and Mordecai was one of them. Evidently he had a position that permitted him to drop by the gate to the palace and find out what was going on with the selections being made, and how Esther was doing. He continually insisted that she let no one know who she really was, and therefore no one knew that she was a Jew. There is no doubt in my mind…God placed Esther on the throne before the Jews faced another threat to be destroyed as a nation…see 3:5, where it started…so that when trouble came a person would already be in the position to help prevent the destruction of the Jews. God was making sure that no human effort could stand in the way of God’s plan to send the Messiah to earth as a Jewish descendent of David. Are you moving, changing jobs, or positions, or location and you are not able to see why this had to happen now? Even if you see no purpose whatsoever in what you have to do…just turn it over to God! He is in control! And he may be placing you in a place or position where you can help someone else when the time is right; and remember he will also take care of you. He put Esther in the right place at the right time!

2: 19-23…On one occasion when Mordecai was waiting at the gate to check on Esther, two of the guards got into a fight and Mordecai heard them arguing and making plans to kill the king. Mordecai told Esther about the plot and she told the king that Mordecai was the one that had made the report. When it was checked out it was found to be a threat on the life of the king, and the two men were hanged for their plot to kill the king. At the same time, the King made mental note that Mordecai should be honored for his good deed. This entire affair was recorded in the annals in the presence of the king.

Go back and look at some of the questions I ask you in the first paragraph on page one. Now remember that God is the same as he was then, and will be forever, so if he injects his will and power into the life of an orphan Jewish girl and helps her to save her cousin and later the entire Jewish nation, then answer: Why will he not take care of displaced storm victims? Why will he intercede before he allows Godless terrorist to destroy our nation? We do not have to worry about God. Our only problem that we should be concerned about is US. WE ARE THE PROBLEM. If we will return to Him, get on our knees and seek his face, repent of our sinful ways, and acknowledge him as the one and only true God of this universe—Then he will forgive our sins and heal our land and we will be stronger and more secure than we were before any of our major problems started rolling in. Praise Him! Love Him! Serve Him! He will bless you.