"If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews
will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who
knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?"
Esther 4:14 NLT
Not only was Queen Esther beautiful, but she was brilliant and Brave...
will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who
knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?"
Esther 4:14 NLT
Not only was Queen Esther beautiful, but she was brilliant and Brave...
Hers was a tale written in Heaven. A woman of Jewish descent living in a heathen society by no choice of her own, God placed her in a position where she would ultimately save her people from annihilation.
Esther, through a series of unusual circumstances, became the First Lady of a Persian King and Monarch by the name of Ahasuerus (Xerxes). His former queen, Vashti, was removed from her position due to insolence. Thus, a new queen was needed, and the King's choice was Esther. She was chosen over hundreds of other women. Her graceful spirit won the king's heart.
As a Jew, Esther had been raised by a caring uncle whose name was Mordecai. He and his young niece were the descendants of Jews who had been carried off when the armies of the powerful Media Persian Empire, conquered the exceedingly brutal Babylonians, who overran Jerusalem in years past. At the time, it was the Babylonians who brutalized the Jews and took many of them as slaves and servants. Now a new tyrant had come – The Persians.
While for Esther, history seems to indicate that both her parents were dead. They were probably the descendants of those who had been carried off when the Babylonians ravished Israel. And so it was, that Mordecai became Esther's caregiver, as they both had to adjust to living in a foreign nation where the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not known.
But throughout all this, God was at work behind the scene. When a plot was hatched to kill Mordecai, because as a Jew he refused to bow down to General Haman who was second in command to the King himself, it was Queen Esther who was able to step in and thwart General Haman's hideous plan to kill her uncle, and his plan to kill all the Jews throughout the entire empire, too. Because of Esther, and her wisdom and courage, a holocaust was averted.
Esther boldly revealed her Jewishness to a startled King. And when she told him of Haman's plan to kill off the Jews, including her uncle Mordecai, whom the King greatly respected because he had once saved his life from an assassination attempt, a now angry King Ahasuerus ordered that the wicked Haman be hanged on the same gallows that were originally prepared for Mordecai.
In the end, the Jews who lived throughout the Media Persian Empire were spared. They got to live another day, thanks to a wise Esther whom God put into position for such a time as this.
While today, many centuries and generations later, Jews throughout the world honor the life of Queen Esther. We celebrate her work of deliverance with a holiday known as Purim. On this day we exchange gifts with family and friends, and even with strangers. And we also give thanks to God for His mercy and His goodness.
Our beloved Queen Esther shined as a star in an oppressively dark pagan world. While her uncle Mordecai remains an example of a person who works for the good of the people at all costs.
D.B.
Read the full story in the book of Esther here.
Esther, through a series of unusual circumstances, became the First Lady of a Persian King and Monarch by the name of Ahasuerus (Xerxes). His former queen, Vashti, was removed from her position due to insolence. Thus, a new queen was needed, and the King's choice was Esther. She was chosen over hundreds of other women. Her graceful spirit won the king's heart.
As a Jew, Esther had been raised by a caring uncle whose name was Mordecai. He and his young niece were the descendants of Jews who had been carried off when the armies of the powerful Media Persian Empire, conquered the exceedingly brutal Babylonians, who overran Jerusalem in years past. At the time, it was the Babylonians who brutalized the Jews and took many of them as slaves and servants. Now a new tyrant had come – The Persians.
While for Esther, history seems to indicate that both her parents were dead. They were probably the descendants of those who had been carried off when the Babylonians ravished Israel. And so it was, that Mordecai became Esther's caregiver, as they both had to adjust to living in a foreign nation where the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not known.
But throughout all this, God was at work behind the scene. When a plot was hatched to kill Mordecai, because as a Jew he refused to bow down to General Haman who was second in command to the King himself, it was Queen Esther who was able to step in and thwart General Haman's hideous plan to kill her uncle, and his plan to kill all the Jews throughout the entire empire, too. Because of Esther, and her wisdom and courage, a holocaust was averted.
Esther boldly revealed her Jewishness to a startled King. And when she told him of Haman's plan to kill off the Jews, including her uncle Mordecai, whom the King greatly respected because he had once saved his life from an assassination attempt, a now angry King Ahasuerus ordered that the wicked Haman be hanged on the same gallows that were originally prepared for Mordecai.
In the end, the Jews who lived throughout the Media Persian Empire were spared. They got to live another day, thanks to a wise Esther whom God put into position for such a time as this.
While today, many centuries and generations later, Jews throughout the world honor the life of Queen Esther. We celebrate her work of deliverance with a holiday known as Purim. On this day we exchange gifts with family and friends, and even with strangers. And we also give thanks to God for His mercy and His goodness.
Our beloved Queen Esther shined as a star in an oppressively dark pagan world. While her uncle Mordecai remains an example of a person who works for the good of the people at all costs.
D.B.
Read the full story in the book of Esther here.