26 Esther

Now my next letter I get to tell you about Esther…. I love the story of Esther……Dan’s grandmothers name was Esther…… How cool is that!..

Next comes Esther. One of two women that books or stories were named after in the Bible. This story illustrates how God keeps a close eye on His people, the Jews. Esther”s story begins like a fairy tale. A young and beautiful Jewish girl is singled out from many others to be the queen of Persia. But the story ends with a decision she had to make. Would she risk her own life to save her people? Or would she turn away in fear and let them die? This particular story does end happily ever after as Esther successfully saves the Jews from destruction. In Esther’s day, Persia was one of the most powerful empires in the world and was ruled by King Xerxes. I will call him King X. One day, after a particularly long and elaborate party, King X was half drunk with wine and ordered his then wife, Queen Vashti, to parade herself before him and his officials. After she refused to even come, King X banished her from the Kingdom. Out she goes, like how dare her. Then he wants a new wife, of course, and he sends out the troops to find another young women to replace her. Esther who was raised by her Uncle Mordecai, was chosen over many women. This was huge that she got chosen over so many other girls. The king took a real fancy to her. Her Uncle Mordecai stayed close to the walls of the kingdom to watch her though. And while he was hanging around the gates, he overheard two guards plotting to kill the king. So he got a message to Esther, to warn the king. And she did, this was huge. Uncle Mordacai was recorded in the official records as saving the king.


During this time Mordicai, Esther’s uncle, displeased Haman, the second in command of the kingdom, by refusing to bow down to him. He only bowed down to God, bottom line. This rubbed Haman the wrong way, like another how dare him! Everyone else did. As a result of his hate for Mordicai and the Jews, Haman tricked the king to issue a decree stating that all Jews be killed. You see Haman hates the Jews and wanted them wiped off the face of the earth. I would say satan was working through him bigtime! So he succeeded in tricking the king and everything was in place now, a date was set for when the Jews would all be taken and and killed. Crazy eh.

Now at this time, the king was having problems sleeping and he asked one of his servants to read to him at night so he could sleep. He read to him about when this Mordicai saved his life. And the king thought, hey, I really don’t think I did anything to thank him for this huge thing he did for me. He needed to reward this man and honour him. So the next morning Haman comes to see him and the king asks him. How would you honour someone that is devoted to me? And Haman, who thinks he is talking about him. says ohhhh you should put a royal robe on him, have him ride on the kings horse and parade him around the city in front of everyone telling them that he was a favorite of the king. The king agreed and told him to go and do that for Mordicai. Can you imagine.. this doebrain thought it was all about him, and now he had to do all that he wanted done for himself, to someone he truly hated. sooooooo as you know, he is about to kill all the Jews at this point, it was all in the works. Haman was not happy!!!

What would Esther to do? She was the only hope the people had of reaching the king and having this stupid decree reversed, or they would all die! But anyone who came before the king without permission or a summons, they could be sentenced to death. Ya just didn’t approach the king, even if you were his wife! Moreover, Esther was a Jew, a fact she had been careful to hide this the entire time. Despite the danger, Ester courageously appeared before the king. And he was actually pleased to see her, and said, What is it you want? I will give you anything. And she said, oh nothing - just your presence at a dinner I want to throw for you. and include Haman. So here they are, at dinner, just after Haman paraded Mordicia around the city saying he was the kings favorite, and now this. At their dinner king X asks Esther again, What ever you want is yours.

She told him that it would be nice if he could spare her life and the lives of her people, because her and her people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. Of course king X is shocked that anyone would even suggest such a thing, and wanted to know who was responsible for it. Guess who, Evil Haman, who was sitting right there with them. The king storms out of the room and then Haman realized he was doomed and threw himself on the coach where Esther was and began begging for his life. In comes the king again and thinks he was molesting the queen!!!! Haman had created this big gallows that he was anxiously awaiting to hang Mordicia on, and guess what…… the king had him hung there instead. His plan backfired, that is because God is always around to protect his people. So in the end, Esther gets Hamans house and Mordicai gets to be the kings second in command. the Jews are saved. wooohooo

The Jews are God’s special people, if you read the bible you will see that people are always trying to get rid of the Jews. always.. even now, look at Hitler, ISIS.. same story.. trying to wipe out the Jews because they are God’s people. It will continue til the end of time actually, but I wont get into that now, just wanted to show you that way back when, God helped save His people. I saw a movie about this story in the Bible and it was great, it was an old movie, cause they don’t make good bible movies anymore. Sometime you might wanna watch it. It helps to see a story from the Bible come alive.. as long as its done truthfully. You will know after reading the Bible if a movie is portrayed as per in the Bible.