A long, long, time ago… thus would begin all the stories that my older cousins would narrate to me and my sister along with our other younger cousins when we were all kids. Most of these stories would invariably have a princess, a prince or a king who would come and rescue the princess and marry her and then take her to a far, far, away kingdom of his where they lived happily ever after.
Similarly, a long, long, time ago, in the land of Persia there lived a young, beautiful, Jewish girl named Esther. The king of the land at that time was Xerxes who was all powerful and ruled the land all the way from India to Ethiopia. King Xerxes held a banquet for all his nobles and officials and invited his Queen, Queen Vashti to the banquet since he wanted to show off to everyone how beautiful his wife was. King Xerxes was obviously drunk and Queen Vashti did not take kindly to his demands and so she refused to present herself before King Xerxes and his court. This enraged King Xerxes who on consulting with his royal advisors divorced and put away Queen Vashti. By a strange turn of events Esther found herself winning King Xerxes’ heart and became Queen Esther. Backing up a bit we learn that Esther was an orphan from her childhood and was brought up by her cousin Mordecai who used to sit at King Xerxes’ court and who also came upon a conspiracy to kill King Xerxes and warned and saved King Xerxes’ life from the conspirators. However, Queen Esther did not reveal her relationship to Mordecai since she did not want to reveal that she was a Jew as directed by Mordecai. Now Mordecai had an enemy in King Xerxes’ court, Haman who was esteemed by everyone and everyone bowed to him but not Mordecai who refused to bow down to any man and only bowed down to and worshipped the one true and living God. This enraged Haman further who sought revenge against all Jews as his way of getting back at Mordecai and had an order passed which stated that all Jews were to be killed and slaughtered on a particular set date. This caused no small amount of grief among all Jews in King Xerxes’ kingdom. Haman also had gallows erected on which he planned to have Mordecai hung. Queen Esther and Mordecai responded to these crises with going on a fast for 3 days along with the rest of the Jews in that city.
That particular night King Xerxes could not sleep and so he had the record of his reign, which was chronicled, to be brought in and read to him and in it he came across the portion where it was recorded how Mordecai had saved King Xerxes’ life. King Xerxes immediately called Haman and asked what should be done to honor a person King Xerxes wanted to honor since he wanted to honor Mordecai for saving the King’s life. Haman thought it was himself that King Xerxes wanted to honor and so he answered let the person wear King Xerxes’ royal robes, ride King Xerxes’ royal horse, and have a noble from King Xerxes’ court escort him through the streets of the city with the nobleman shouting out aloud, ‘This is what is done for the man the King delights to honor!" King Xerxes immediately commanded Haman to do all this to Mordecai and to have Mordecai honored in this way.
After fasting for three days Queen Esther sought an audience with King Xerxes and explained to him how the evil Haman was out to destroy Queen Esther and Mordecai along with her people who were all Jews. This enraged King Xerxes who ordered Haman to be hanged on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai and King Xerxes also passed an order permitting all the Jews to defend themselves against any attack and on the day of the planned attack the Jews defeated all their enemies and emerged victorious. What we learn from this story is that no matter what the devil or your enemies plan for you, God will protect you and cause your enemies to be ensnared in their own evil plans. A person who follows and walks with the Lord Jesus Christ will only be blessed, honored and protected at all times and no weapon that is formed against him will prosper.
Key learning from the book of Esther is found at Esther 4:14 where Mordecai informs Queen Esther “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” inferring she was made Queen and rose to prominence not just for herself but to protect all of God’s people the Jews from their enemies. May we also examine all that the Lord Jesus has blessed us with and be sensitive to the leading of the Lord Holy Spirit in putting it to proper use as the Lord Jesus Christ leads.
very true thing. thanks for this. after a long time i read this type of article. thanks again.