Queen Esther - The Interceder

It's curious that the only two women in the Bible to have a book named after them are Esther and Ruth. The great Judge Deborah could have had a book, but of course she was included in the book of Judges.

 Although the main idea of the book of Esther is Esther's being in a position to become a great intercessor for her people, the book also features her cousin Mordecai, who had adopted Esther after the deaths of her parents .Although it was Moredcai's great faith and his "behind the scenes" actions that put Esther in a position to save her people, the book itself is named for Esther. Just as Deborah pointed out in Judges 4:9 that a woman would get the credit for killing the enemy, Esther, in this case gets the credit as well. The woman in Judges who killed Sisera was Jael, the woman who saves her people in the book of Esther is Queen Esther, who although was Jewish, became the wife of the powerful King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) of Persia.

 Esther as intercessor is also a preview of our great intercessor to come, our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8:34 tells us:

³⁴ Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

 

Before Esther became queen, the queen was Vashti. Vashti was deposed for the simple reason that she didn't come to the king when he called her. Sometimes in life it seems that the punishment doesn't really fit the crime. We who have faith have to remember that everything happens for a reason. In our human minds we might think,"this isn't fair," but the things that happen turn out for our best in the long run. Queen Esther would have never been in a position to save the Jews if Queen Vashti had remained queen.

 

So once Vashti was deposed and the king regretted his hasty action, his servants advised him to gather a supply of beautiful young women so that he may choose one to replace the queen. Esther ended up being one of these women. From the outset she had favor with the king's servant over the women and he gave her the best maidservants and the best place in the women's house. Esther, at her cousin's advice, did not reveal that she was a Jew.

 

While this was going on inside the palace, outside the palace her cousin Mordecai overheard a plot against the king. Mordecai often sat within the king's gate, although it was not revealed that his cousin was inside the citadel.  Mordecai relayed the information about the plot to Esther, who reported it to the king. This incident was written in the king's book.

 

Inside the palace, after one year of preparation, Esther was taken into the king. He was pleased with Esther and she eventually became queen.

 

One of the king's servants named Haman was promoted to second in command to the king. All the other servants ( and apparently all the people who sat at the gate) were required to bow down to Haman when he passed by. Mordecai would not bow down to him. Obviously by this time the palace officials knew that Mordecai was a Jew, but they did not know about the connection between him and the queen. Haman was angry about Mordecai's refusal to bow down to him and plotted to kill all the Jews on a certain day. He even convinced the king to write a decree that this killing would take place throughout the provinces. Haman picked the day by drawing lots (called pur.)

 

Mordecai found out that the Jews' lives were in danger. He sent a message to Esther inside the palace and asked her to plead with the king for the lives of her people. Esther responded by saying she could only go before the king if he beckoned her. Anyone who approached the king uninvited would be executed. Mordecai, even in the face of annihilation of his people, still had faith that God would save the people even if Esther couldn't, yet Mordecai still implored his cousin to try. In Esther 4:14, Mordecai says,

¹⁴ If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

 

Esther approached the king and he held out his golden scepter (the indication that it was all right to come before him.) She asked him to invite Haman to a banquet she was preparing.

 

That night the king couldn't sleep so he asked that the royal archives be read to him. In the archives was the story of how Mordecai had thwarted an attempt on the king's life. The king asked his servants if  Mordecai had been rewarded in any way for his action. The servants said no, he had not been rewarded. The king then asked "Who is in the court?' As it happened, (of course as God ordained,) Haman was just entering the court. Haman was actually on his way to suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged. Before he could speak, however,  the king ordered Haman to honor Mordecai.

 

Isn't it beautiful that the one who was plotting his destruction became the person to honor Mordecai?

When Haman went home and complained to his wife what had happened, she said, "If Mordecai is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him. "

 

At the first banquet Esther prepared, she invited the king and Haman to a second banquet. At the second banquet, Esther revealed her background and told the king that her people were going to be killed. She also revealed that the person responsible for her people's peril was sitting right there. It was Haman. The king, in anger walked out but walked right back in. As he walked in he saw Haman falling over Esther begging for his life. The king mistakenly thought Haman was attacking his queen right there. The king had Haman hanged on the very pole that Haman had erected to hang Mordecai.

 

Esther revealed too that Mordecai was her cousin. Mordecai was promoted within the palace. Esther reminded the king that the order still stood against her people throughout the provinces. The king responded that whatever was already written could not be revoked, but the king wrote a second decree,  giving the Jews permission to defend themselves against any enemy and to "take the spoils" of those who would attack them. The Jews killed all their enemies over a two day period but did not take any spoils. After two days of destroying their enemies, Mordecai sent out a decree that the two days following this defense of their lives would be called "Purim," because of the "pur" or "lots" that were cast to determine the days of slaughter.

 

 

 

 

The Book of Ezra: You Can Go Home Again

The end of the book of  II Chronicles and the beginning of the book of Ezra are exactly the same. After the God's people had been taken into captivity by the Babylonians and held for seventy years, Babylon was overtaken by the Persians. The Persian king, Cyrus, decided that He wanted to build a house for God in Jerusalem. How this king came to even believe in the God of the Israelites is somewhat of a mystery. But God can use even a non-believer to bless His people. When King Nebuchanezzar of Babylon had enslaved God's people, he also took all the gold and silver vessels from Jerusalem. When King Cyrus sent the people of Judah back home to rebuild the Temple, he also sent back the riches that had been previously stolen. In other words, he said, "Here's your freedom and here's your riches."

No sooner had the people received this great favor, along came the "haters" to frustrate their plans. After King Cyrus was gone, the haters wrote a letter to the new king Artaxerxes saying, "stop these people from rebuilding Jerusalem, they will rebel and you, oh king, won't get your proper tax dollars." The king followed their advice and decreed that the work be stopped. However, when the work is God's work, it cannot be stopped. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the people and the people resumed their building. The govenor of the province asked the people why they were still building. In their answer they chronicled how the Temple had been built generations ago by the great king Solomon, and how because of disobedience the people were taken into captivity and the Temple was destroyed. However, in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, a decree was made that the Temple be rebuilt, and this decree was in the royal archives. A search was made and the decree was found and Artaxerxes allowed the people to finish building.

The scribe named Ezra isn't mentioned until Chapter 7. Ezra was sent by King Artaxerxes with an official letter and money to buy the bulls, lambs, rams, and grains for the sacrificial worship. Ezra didn't just depend on the king's permission and the king's contributions for the journey and for the contributions for the items to be used in worship, Ezra depended on The King, our Father in heaven. Ezra counted the families making the trip with him and noticed that there weren't any Levites present. He hastily recruited Levites, knowing that only Levites could serve God as priests. In chapter 8 he proclaimed a fast "that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods."

In chapter 9 Ezra realized that many of the officials had married foreign women.Thank God that now we are all God's people, because we believe in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, and we have His Spirit in our hearts, so there are no "foreigners" in God's kingdom. This was not the case before the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Ezra was a strict follower of God's law and this intermarriage between the Jews and the pagan nations bothered him tremendously. Ezra again fasted and then prayed. His prayer is outlined in verses 6 through 15.


" ⁶ And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. ⁷ Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. ⁸ And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. ⁹ For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, ¹¹ which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. ¹² Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’ ¹³ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, ¹⁴ should we again break Your commandments, and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”

After all this, in Chapter 10, the priests and officials agreed to put away their foreign wives  and chapter 10 is the last chapter of the Book of Ezra. However chapter 9 verses 8-9 speak to us down through the generations,  describing the time of grace that we are living in today. We were once slaves to sin, we were in bondage, but God himself gave us a remnant to escape, a peg in His holy place through the sacrifice of His Son.  The Temple (and by extension, Jerusalem) is a place where God dwells. Today, that place is in our hearts.