175 – Esther Becomes Queen
Esther 1:1 – 5:8
One day the queen of Persia embarrassed the king in front of the lords of the court. They all agreed the king should replace her. So an order went out saying all the beautiful virgins were to come to the palace. From them, the king would choose a new queen.
Esther was a beautiful young woman who had been raised by her older cousin Mordecai. She went to the palace because of her beauty and virtue. But … her cousin told her not to tell anyone that she was Jewish.
In the course of time, she was selected to be the new queen. Soon after this, two events happened about the same time. The first was that Mordecai heard a plot to kill the king. He reported it, and the plot was stopped. His good deed was recorded in the official records.
The second event was that a man named Haman was made the highest-ranking official in the government. From then on, people bowed when he walked by—everyone except Mordecai.
When Haman saw this, he became angry and wanted Mordecai killed. But he wanted more than that—he wanted to totally destroy the Jews.
So he went to the king and said, “There are people in the empire who are different than everyone else. They don’t obey your laws because they have their own. It’s not good to let them live. Allow me to serve you by organizing their destruction. It would be my honor to personally pay for the cost of doing this.”
The king was pleased at Haman’s willingness to serve the kingdom, so he gave him the authority to destroy the Jewish people. Haman set a date and then sent out a proclamation.
It said all the Jews were to be killed on that date. This would include the men, women and children. Their possessions were to be given to those who did the killing.
Once the proclamation was translated into many languages, it was sent out to all the nations in the empire. Fear and panic gripped all the Jews of the land.
Esther was in the palace and didn’t know about this decree. Soon she heard that Mordecai was mourning in a public place. She sent a servant to ask him what was wrong. Mordecai told the servant everything and gave him a copy of the decree. He said, “Tell the queen she must talk to the king and beg him to have mercy upon her people.”
She sent a message back to him. “No one is allowed to go before the king without an invitation. Those who do are put to death unless he points the golden scepter toward them. It’s been 30 days since he has last sent for me.
Mordecai sent a message back to her. “Don’t assume you’ll escape, just because you live in the palace. Listen, if you don’t help, your people will be delivered by some other means. Still, you will die! I believe you were brought to the kingdom for such a time as this.”
She sent back a note. “Tell our people to fast for three days. They’re not to eat or drink anything. My servants and I will do the same. Then I’ll go and stand before the king, even though it is against the law. If I die, I die.”
After three days, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court so the king could see her from his throne. When he looked up, he was pleased to see her and immediately pointed the golden scepter towards her. She walked up and touched the top of it.
He said, “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.”
She said, “If it pleases you, I want you and Haman to come to a banquet I have prepared.”
“Done!” said the king. “Guard, run get Haman and bring him here. We’re going to Queen Esther’s banquet.”
Continued in the next story
