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CHAPTER 17 – Esther: 483 B.C.-473 B.C.

Esther is the seventeenth book of the Bible. The title of the book in the Hebrew Bible is Ester which is the name of a woman who is a main character in the book. The English title comes down to us from Septuagint which has the title, Esther.

Authorship

The author of the book of Esther is unknown. The author could have been Ezra, Nehemiah, or Mordecai, who is one of the main characters in the book of Esther.

Summary

The book of Esther covers the period 483 B.C. to 473 B.C. It opens with a feast made by Ahasuerus, king of Persia, lasting 180 days followed by another feast lasting seven days. On the last day of the second feast, the king sends for queen Vashti to show her beauty to the gathered princes and people, but the queen refuses to come.

Therefore, the king puts away queen Vashti and starts a search in all his provinces for a new queen. So, young women are gathered including a Jewish woman named Hadassah, who is also known as Esther. The king loves Esther and makes her queen instead of Vashti. Esther does not reveal to the king that she is Jewish.

Mordecai, a Jew, who had taken the orphan Esther as his own daughter reveals a plot to murder the king to Esther, who tells it to the king. The conspirators are put to death.

After this, the king promotes Haman above all his princes and all the king’s servants bow and reverence Haman, except Mordecai. Haman becomes angry with Mordecai and he seeks to kill all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, in the whole of the king’s kingdom.

So, Haman goes to king with a request to make a law to kill the Jews because they do not keep the king’s laws. The king agrees and he gives his authority to Haman, who makes a decree in every province to kill all the Jews on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month.

Mordecai and the Jews mourn on hearing of the decree with fasting, weeping, and wailing. Mordecai tells Esther about the death decree and asks her to intercede with the king. Esther hesitates but then decides to approach the king knowing that she could die for approaching the king uninvited.

Esther asks Mordecai to cause the Jews in the city to fast for her for three days, and she and her servants likewise fast. Afterwards, she goes before the king who receives her and Esther requests that the King and Haman to come a banquet she has prepared.

Meanwhile Haman returns home and calls his wife and friends and boasts about many things, including the banquet with queen Esther and the king the next day. At his wife’s suggestion, Haman has gallows made on which to hang Mordecai, planning to put this request to the king the next day.

That night the king could not sleep and his servants read to him and it was found written how Mordecai had saved the king’s life and that nothing was done for Mordecai. Haman was then commanded by the king to parade Mordecai through the streets of the city and to proclaim the honour that the king had bestowed on Mordecai. Haman does so, he returns home mourning, and is hastened by the king’s servants to Esther’s banquet.

Haman and the king attend the banquet and Esther arranges another banquet the following day. Haman and the king attend the second banquet at which Esther reveals that she is a Jew and that the death decree made by Haman is against herself and her people, the Jews. The king is enraged and he hangs Haman on the gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai.

Mordecai is then promoted by the king and Mordecai writes a new decree to all the king’s provinces. This decree allows the Jews to avenge themselves on their enemies on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The Jews rejoice and on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month they put all their enemies to death, but they take no plunder.

At Esther’s request to the king, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month the Jews put more of their enemies to death but again they take no plunder.

So, all the Jews in the provinces make the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the twelfth month, days of rest, feasting, and gladness, and call these days Purim. The Jews in the king’s city of Shushan, celebrate their victory on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth day.

The Jews ordain that Purim be kept by every generation of Jews. So, Mordecai is elevated to next in rank to the king and is great among the Jews, seeking the wealth and peace of the Jews.

Themes

• Self-indulgence in food, wine, and merrymaking.
• Anger towards God’s people.
• Pride.
• Satan at work to kill all the Jews, the people through whom Christ should come into the world.
• Courage.
• Fasting.
• The defeat of the enemies of God’s people.

God as Revealed in the Book

• God’s favour towards His people.
• God’s providence in thwarting Satan’s plans.

Connections with the Rest of the Bible

Mordecai is a type, a symbol, of Christ who said, “If the world hate you [my disciples], ye know that it hated me [Christ] before it hated you.” John 15:18. Haman is a type, a symbol, of Satan. So, in the last days, Satan will “cause that as many as would not worship [him, Satan, by worshipping] the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15.

Just as Mordecai triumphed over Haman, Christ by His death on the cross, “having spoiled [plundered] principalities and powers [of Satan], he made a shew [show] of them openly, triumphing over them [over Satan and his evil angels] in it.” Colossians 2:15. Moreover, in the end of the conflict between God and Satan, Satan’s “mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate [own head when Satan is annihilated by God].” Psalm 7:16.

Spiritual Applications

Pray to God sincerely and ask God to help you to do His will, believing that God will help you, and thus you will be enabled to make the spiritual applications noted below:

• Do not indulge in ungodly merrymaking and revelry.
• Do not be angry without a just cause.
• Do not be prideful but instead be meek and lowly.
• Seek God, and God will deliver you from evil.
• Learn to fast and so control your appetite.

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