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I. Introduction

A. Story begins about 483...about 50 years after they returned from captivity, but the focus of this account is not those who went home, but those who did not return... a lot of the Jews did not return. This book focuses on those who were loving in the city of Susa, where it is believed that the King's winter residence was...

1. This is towards the end of Old Testament history, at least that which is recorded in the form of historical narrative…

2. Ezra returned in 458

3. Nehemiah returned in 445

4. Malachi, which was probably the last book of the OT that was written was written before the end of the 400s

5. Historically fits between & 7, which is before both Ezra and Nehemiah return

II.

A. Ahasuerus is same as Xerxes

B. 485-465 time of his reign

C. Persia was the biggest empire the world had known at that time

D. In third year of his reign, Ahasuerus had a party... and man, did he ever know how to throw a party?

1. It lasted for 180 days...this is a six-month party. Can you imagine a feast lasting this long? More than likely the guests would come and go. They wouldn’t stay for the whole party. They had other things to do! But the length of the party is mainly intended to show the extravagance and wealth of the king. It was a display of his power. Verse 4 says that over this time, “he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty…” He was showing off… This is a common theme though the book… Men showing off their power and then in some way being humbled follows…

E. But even when this party was done, this was not the end of the festivities… (v5) There were then 7 days of celebration for the people who were in the city of Susa… during this party he showed once again showed off his wealth…

1. Luxurious fabrics, stones, and metals (v6)…

2. (V7) There as plenty of royal wine to go around which was being served in golden vessels… Nothing is held back!

3. The king made a law (v8) saying you could do what you wanted as far as drinking. This just begins to show how strange the process of making laws was in general… Everything in the book of Esther seems to be by law. They make decrees for everything… Here the king even makes a law to make sure everyone knew there was no law for this feast regarding how much you could drink

F. We think historically this is on the eve of his big invasion of Greece... perhaps he was trying to rally the support of the leaders to join him in this invasion by a display of power… that is a reasonable theory… This would be a morale booster for the people in the city as well as the army before they went out to battle (where they would end up losing)... being humbled…

G. V9 - We are also told that the King’s wife, Vashti was giving a banquet. Hers seemed to be less impressive...at least not much detail is given to her banquet. Just one verse in our Bibles…

III.

A. This section is quite intriguing…

B. On the last climatic day of the feast, how was the king was feeling now? Quite merry… He was merry because? He had a lot to drink over this period of time… This is probably a nice way of saying he was drunk…

C. But at this point, he commands his eunuchs to go and fetch the queen. The reason why he wanted her to come is interesting… Just as with his wealth, he wanted to show off his wife to the people of the city… This is the climax of great display of his power… to show off the beauty of Vashti… An object to gawk over... not too different than the way a lot of men look at women today

D. With the great display of authority here, what happens next is just shocking… the eunuchs go to get his wife, and she refuses the invitation… He has such great authority that his wife doesn’t even listen to him…

E. This is quite the snag in the festivities… Here's this all-powerful king ruling from India to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces who has displayed all his riches and power and he has been disobeyed by his wife… And all of this in the sight of the people of the city of Susa!!

F. How does he feel? (V12) Very angry... and he then does what any good husband would do right? No, not really… He gets consultation from some of his wise men…

1. This is a good picture of what King Ahasuerus is like... It seems in this book that he almost never has a thought of his own; he never makes a decision on his own; he has to consult with the wise men to know how to even deal with his wife.

2. And they see this domestic incident as a national crisis. Why? They are worried that the news is going to spread, and when it spreads, none of the women will obey their husbands… I guess the dignity of the men of Persia was so fragile that the actions of one woman will threaten the authority of all of them.

3. They are horrified by this prospect, so they recommend to the King that he issue a decree regarding his wife… Another law needs to be made because the kings wife did not obey him… The decree that they encouraged the king to make was to not allow the queen into his presence any longer and that her royal position of queen would be given to another who hopefully would at least be more submissive. Their hope was when this decree was publicized throughout the empire that all of the wives would then honor their husbands…

4. This is just funny. They were so afraid of the news getting out that the king was dishonored by his wife, that they decide to publicize it throughout the kingdom! You just cannot make this stuff up!

5. So verse 22, this edict goes out… The edict show that the man is to be the ruler of his home…. And the language of the household needs to be the language of the husband… Both of these showing that the husband is worthy of respect… But is that something you can get by decree?

a) You see this a lot even today… Bosses try to order their workers to respect them...they may be able to order obedience, but the respect usually doesn’t come unless it is earned

b) Men, listen up for a moment… There are husbands who try to do this to their wives...They command their wives to honor them and respect them... you can order obedience but respect is the function of your character and you can't order respect… If you want respect in your home, love your wife! Be respectable… Be honorable in your character and treatment of your wife…

G. This chapter foreshadows later events and sort of shows you what Esther will be up against. This chapter gives us insight into the character of the king so we can understand his actions later in the book

IV.

A. Some time passes between the end of chapter one and chapter 2. We are not told how much though… Many commentators think that a couple years have passed. This is possible. If so, this chapter may take place after his horrible military defeats in 481 and 480BC. He may be coming back at this time, and desires to find comfort in his harem, but there is a problem… He doesn’t have a queen… But of course, he issued a decree that she could not return to his presence, so something needs to be done… And someone makes the decision for him…

B. His attendants come and suggest that he find a new queen. They suggest rounding up all of the beautiful women in the empire and bringing them into the harem where they can be put through a process of being made even more beautiful so they can be worthy of a king. Then each night, one of the beautiful women would be brought to the king to spend the night with, and at the end of the process, he would pick one of these women to be his queen.

C. This, at face value, doesn’t seem to be the best process of finding a wife that will honor you and respect you… no real changes in his character are noted… he continues finding ways to find pleasure for himself…

V.

A. Then we are introduced to two important characters in the book who lived in Susa…

B. First, we are introduced to Mordecai,

1. He seems to be a prominent man among the Jews. His family line was traced back to Kish a Benjamite who was captured with King Jeconiah/Jehoiachin of Judah and brought to captivity by the king of Babylon. This may show that Kish was a noble of the Jews, which may make Mordecai, being a descendant of Kish, someone the Jews living in Susa looked up to. Many commentators note similarities between Mordecai’s short genealogy recorded here and King Saul’s genealogy, which may show that Mordecai is a descendant of King Saul. If this is true, then this is significant later…

C. We are told that Mordecai is raising his cousin, Hadassah (Esther), who was orphaned…

1. When her parents died, Mordecai took her and raised her has his own daughter. Mordecai gives us a great example of fulfilling responsibilities towards needy relatives… as we talked about in our study of regarding widows… God desires his people to take care of those who are relatives who are in need. He made provisions under both covenants to care for His people who were helpless

2. We are told that Esther is a beautiful woman, which gives you a clue of what will happen next with her…

VI.

A. Esther is among the women brought into the King’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, the overseer of the women. All of the women who were brought were put through a 12-month beautification process… according to the regulations given for the women… maybe the king made laws regarding this also…

B. But after the 12 months was up, the process begins of each woman spending a night with the king. We do not know how maany women there were, but after some time, Esther is sent to the king.

C. V12 - we see that about 4yrs has passed since the events of ch1.

D. Throughout this account in chapter 2, we are told a that Esther of outdoor favor in the sight of those she was with. Whether this is only because of her beauty or for other reasons we are not told. When she and the other virgins were brought in, she found dead favor with the servant and was put in the best place among the women (v9). V12 says that Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

E. When she went into the king (v17), she won the kings favor above all the women, and she is made the queen.

F. The rest of the women become his concubines.

G. And it is no surprise that this occasion warrants another feast/party.

VII.

A. Mordecai is sitting in the king's gate...take that to mean he has some position in the city government. He finds out about this plot by two of Ahasuerus servants to assassinate the king. We are just told that they were angry with the king…

B. When Mordecai finds out, he lets Esther know who informs the king...the king investigates, finds out it is true and hangs these two guys and then this is written in the records of the king, and this event will be brought up again later in the book at the perfect time…

C. But this was a serious threat on the king. About 14 years later Ahasuerus was the victim of a similar conspiracy by his servants... he died in an assassination. This could have done him in - it is a good thing Mordecai found out about it

VIII. Conclusion

A. The morality of Esther and Mordecai’s decisions?

1. A lot of questions are asked regarding whether or not the actions of especially Esther here are good. What she does sure seems to contradict what God desired of His people under the Old Covenant. She is marrying a pagan man here. It is important to note that whether what she does is right or wrong is NOT given to us in the text. Do not assume that if something is not looked down on in the text regarding the actions of people that it is acceptable. Not everything Esther and Mordecai did was right.

B. Where is God?

1. One thing (better – one person) has be missing as we have gone through these first two chapters, and this will continue through the rest of the book

2. Is God active even though He is not mentioned? One commentator says regarding this, “If the name of God is not here, his finger is.” God’s is present even though He is not mentioned. This book is a good one for us today to read because it shows how God works behind the scenes for the good of His people and to fulfill His promises to them. Whenever we have doubts as to whether or not God is active in the world today, stores like this one show us that we have good reason to trust that God is at work in our lives to help us be more like His Son.