ESTHER---PRESERVATION OF THE PEOPLE
INTRODUCTION
1. The name of the book is taken from its principal character, a Jewish maiden who became queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes the Great).
2. While Esther stands out as the principal character, the whole story turns on the refusal of Mordecai to bow down to Haman, which would have been to show him a divine honor.
3. Probably in no other book is God’s hand so evident. It shows that God is constantly looking after the nation of His choice, and He will ever preserve His people. “Haman’s anti-Semitic bloodlust is by no means unique in history. Pharaoh attempted to stamp out the Jewish people when they were in bondage in Egypt in the days of Moses. In more recent times, Hitler sought to do the same thing in Europe. But God has His hand upon the Jewish people and He has His own high purposes to work out with them. Satan’s attempt to thwart the birth of Christ by annihilating the Jews failed. His subsequent attempts to wreak his vengeance on them have been terrible, but he has never succeeded in eradicating them. The Jews remain a gulf stream in the ocean of mankind, being neither assimilated nor exterminated. They will yet occupy the lofty place in world affairs which God has planned for them.” --Phillips
4. The book of Esther holds a very high place in the hearts of the Jews.
A. It is one five books (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes being the others) read on special festival days.
B. Of the five books mentioned above, Esther was the most highly esteemed.
C. It was elevated to a place above the other sacred books of the Hebrew Canon except those of the Pentateuch.
5. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate the providential care of God over His people.
A. “We are meant to see the providential overruling as distinct from supernatural intervening.” --Baxter
B. No miraculous intervention is resorted to.
6. Peculiarities of the book:
A. No mention is made of Palestine, Jerusalem, the temple, the Law of Moses or general Hebrew history.
B. Ahasuerus is mentioned 187 times, but the name of God is not mentioned at all. None of the titles of God in general used by the Jews are to be found, such as Elohim, Jehovah, Shaddai or Adonai.
7. The character of Ahasuerus: “This is the king who ordered a bridge to be built over the Hellespont, and who, on learning that the bridge had been destroyed by a tempest, just after its completion, was so blindly enraged that he commanded three hundred strokes of the scourge to be inflicted on the sea, and a pair of fetters thrown into it at the Hellespont, and then had the unhappy builders of the bridge beheaded. This is the king who, on being offered a sum equivalent to five and a half million sterling by Pythius, the Lydian, towards the expenses of a military expedition, was so enraptured at such loyalty that he returned the money, accompanied by a handsome present; and then, on being requested by the same Pythius, shortly afterwards, to spare him just one of his sons, the eldest, from the expedition, as the sole support of his declining years, furiously ordered the son to be cut into two pieces, and the army to march between them. This is the king who dishonored the remains of the heroic Spartan, Leonidas. This is the king who drowned the humiliation of his inglorious defeat in such a plunge of sensuality that he publicly offered a prize for the invention of some new indulgence. This is the king who cut a canal through the Isthmus of Athos for his fleet - a prodigious undertaking. This is the king whose vast resources, and gigantic notions and imperious temper made the name of Persia to awe the ancient world. Herodotus tells us that among the myriads gathered for the expedition against Greece, Ahasuerus was the fairest in personal beauty and stately bearing. But morally he was a mixture of passionate extremes. He is just the despot to dethrone queen Vashti for refusing to expose herself before the tipsy guests. He is just the one to consign a people like the Jews to be massacred, and then to swing over to the opposite extreme of sanctioning Jewish vengeance on thousands of his other subjects.”
AUTHOR: Unknown - perhaps Ezra, Nehemiah or more probably Mordecai. (See 2:5-7; 9:20)
DATE
1. Of coverage: about 10 or 11 years from the third year of Ahasuerus to his 13th or 14th year. (483 B.C. - 472 B.C.)
2. Of writing: uncertain - probably some years after the events recorded. (1:1,2)
THEME: The preservation of the Jews
KEY PASSAGE: 4:13-16
CIRCUMSTANCES
1. Great numbers of the Jews had been scattered throughout the Medo-Persian Empire after Zerubbabel’s return. (3:8; 8:9)
2. An evil plot to destroy the Jews was laid by Haman. (3:6,12,13)
3. Deliverance of the Jews was brought by Esther and Mordecai. (8:7-11)
MESSAGES
1. To show the work of providence for God’s people.
2. Why has God allowed me to live in this particular hour? (4:14)
3. The prophetic significance of the book.
“Vashti, the Gentile wife, may be looked upon as Christendom, to be set aside for her disobedience; and Esther, the Jewess, takes her place. This reminds us of the two olive trees in Romans 11 and the final execution of the Divine threat that the grafted-in branches, Gentile Christendom, are to be cut off and the broken branches of Israel put back upon their own olive tree. Haman, the wicked enemy of the Jews, a descendent of Agag, the first enemy Israel met in the wilderness, is an illustration of the future enemy Israel will face. He is called ‘Haman the wicked’. (7:6) The numerical value of the Hebrew letters composing the word ‘Haman the wicked’ is exactly 666. Mordecai is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in His coming glorious exaltation. The complete triumph of the Jews over their enemies and the joy and peace recorded at the close of the book are typical of the time when Christ reigns on the earth.” --A.C. Gaebelein
OUTLINE
I. THE CROWNING OF ESTHER (1-2)
II. THE CONSPIRACY OF HAMAN (3:1-4:9)
III. THE COURAGE OF ESTHER (4:10-5:14)
IV. THE CONFUSION OF HAMAN (6)
V. THE CONQUEST OF ESTHER (7-9:19)
VI. THE CELEBRATION OF THE JEWS (9:20-10:3)
Curiously, all the events of the book center around three feasts:
I. THE FEAST OF AHASUERUS (1-2)
II. THE FEAST OF ESTHER (3-7)
III. THE FEAST OF PURIM (8-10)
THE FEAST OF PURIM
In commemoration of their great deliverance, Mordecai and Esther instituted the Feast of Purim (9:26). Like the Jews preceding the feast of Hanukkah, it is a link in the chain of redemption and preservation which God Himself has forged for His people.
On the 14th and 15th days of March, Purim is celebrated. Every year during the feast, the story of Esther is read with great joy in the synagogues. Mordecai’s name is cheered, and Haman’s is greeted with the stomping of feet, with booing, and the sound of special noisemakers. Gifts are sent to friends and to the poor, in a joyful reenactment of the first Purim, commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of their enemies, Haman and his henchmen.
QUOTES TO QUESTION
1. “In less than one hundred years the Jewish problem will be solved. The race will simply have disappeared.” --Hitler
2. “Israel is annihilated; Israel will have no posterity.” --Ramses II (3000 years ago)