Q2 Esther

This week I didn’t have time to read my outside of reading book, but I did read the book and story of Esther from the Bible. It’s a fascinating story of a young girl named Esther. The story starts with the provinces from India to Cush all partying for 180 days. The last week of this giant party, the King Xerxes is quite drunk and demands that his wife, Queen Vashti, is brought to him. When she refuses, the King’s advisers predict that if she is not banished from the kingdom, all the women in the King’s provinces will rebel against their husbands. The Queen is then thrown out. All the young ladies in Susa, the province closest to the castle, are taken from their families and brought to the castle. For the next weeks and months the girls are given beauty treatments. Esther stands out to the king and his advisers. She is humble and down-to-earth. The King chooses her to become his new bride and although Esther is not happy about leaving her only family, Mordecai, behind, she accepts and becomes the Queen. What the King does not know about Esther is that she is a Jew. The king’s second in command, Haman, secretly hates Esther’s cousin and father like figure, Mordecai. When Haman learns he is a Jew, he goes to the King. He tells of how there is religious group conspiring against the king. The King then blindly signs a decree ordering all Jews to be killed. When Mordecai learns of this, he goes to the gate and tells Esther she must approach the King and stop this evil. This fate of the Jews lies in this young girl’s hands. She is terrified to do so for approaching the King in court without being called to do so is punishable with death. She at first refuses but in the end after reading a letter Mordecai sends her decides to save her people. In his letter Mordecai wrote something to Esther that stood out to me, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” Esther became Queen for a purpose. She was born to save the Jews from Haman. She eventually, with the strength of God, approaches the King. He greets her warmly and welcomes her. Never once does he question why she has entered his court, let alone order her killed. She gets the courage to speak up after three days of dining with the King and because of his love for her, he listens. She tells of Haman’s selfish plans to kill the Jews, her people. The Jews are saved because of one young girl’s courage and faith to stand up for what she knows is right even if doing so may kill her.