Esther

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Chapter 1: 11, 14

1:11 "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is afar off." Isaiah 33:17 "To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on."

  The Book of Esther records a series of events that took place in a period of time when Persia dominated the world and Xeroxes, called Ahasuerus, was king.
  The book begins by noting that the king was experiencing difficulty with Queen Vashti, who was a beauty herself. (1:11) The king desired to show off his wife to the princes of Persia, but she would not show off her beauty as commanded. Vexed by her refusal the king decided to divorce his wife and take away her crown.
  To replace his defiant wife, the king ordered a beauty pageant to be held with the most beautiful women of Persia competing for the title of "Miss Persia" with the title of "Queen" going to the winner.
   Mordecai heard of the pageant and slipped in his cousin Esther whose beauty out shined the other contestants without the aid of jewelry or special clothing and she was named queen. She was important because she used her outward beauty to save the Jewish captives from destruction and influenced the king to allow Nehemiah to return and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

4:14  ”…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 

 
  The story of Esther concerns a king called Ahasuerus, the grandfather of Cyrus the Great, who married a young Jewish girl named Esther, a captive taken from the city of Jerusalem. It also involves her cousin, Mordecai, who became a judge in the city gates in Susa, the capital of Media-Persia; and an officer of the King's court named Haman.
  The events of the Book of Esther take place when Israel was in captivity under King Ahasurus. Many of the Jewish people had been allowed to return home to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and restore their worship, others for various reasons stayed. The story is that of a king and his kingdom. The king divorces the queen who is at his side when the story opens, and thereby becomes a lonely man by his own decree. He is powerless to change the decree after it is issued, and in his loneliness, he begins a search for a new queen. Esther, under the control of her cousin, Mordecai, is brought before the king and he falls in love with her. Because of her beauty, he immediately chooses her to be his queen and exalts her to the second place in the kingdom.
   Esther’s rise to the throne was well timed. There was a movement being planned by Haman to destroy the Jewish people. She would ultimately be the single presence that would make the difference. Haman managed to pull the wool over the king's eyes and deceive him into signing a decree to destroy all the Jews in his kingdom. Haman and Mordecai are instantly in direct conflict because Haman was "the enemy of the Jews." Learning that Mordecai is a Jew, he vows to eliminate him from the kingdom. Mordecai overhears the plot and gets word to Queen Esther that she would need to act to save the people. He is confident that the people would be saved, either by her hand or by someone's hand because God would not allow his people to be destroyed. Thus he utters the words of this text, "and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
   Eventually Esther is able to expose Haman's plans, and save the people but not before watching Mordecai raised to a position of prominence and Haman hanged from gallows he built for Mordecai.

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   Haman managed to pull the wool over the king's eyes and deceive him into signing a decree to destroy all the Jews in his kingdom. Haman and Mordecai are instantly in direct conflict because Haman was "the enemy of the Jews." Learning that Mordecai is a Jew, he vows to eliminate him from the kingdom. Mordecai overhears the plot and gets word to Queen Esther that she would need to act to save the people. He is confident that the people would be saved, either by her hand or by someone's hand because God would not allow his people to be destroyed. Thus he utters the words of this text, "and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Eventually Esther is able to expose Haman's plans, and save the people but not before watching Mordecai raised to a position of prominence and Haman hanged from gallows he built for Mordecai.
  How is God's providence revealed in the book of Esther?
  1. Although highly improbable Esther was able to win a beauty contest and become Queen (2:15-18)
  2. Mordecai's overhearing of the plot to destroy the people.
  3. The casting of the lots that produced a date a year away gave Esther time to persuade the king to change his mind. (3:7-51)
  4. The King's tolerance for Esther although he had others in his harem
It shows that while God's name was never called in Esther his hand was felt in the way he caused things to happen for his people.

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