Esther

A Brief Introduction 

Global Message for Today 

The world’s ideas regarding marriage are warped. Still today, the marriages of famous people rarely speak well of the institution of marriage, but instead they reflect the sinful hearts of men and women by nature. Christ’s glorious marriage to the church is the great model for marriage (Eph. 5:22–33). How can we as Christian husbands and wives follow Christ’s model and display marriages that are nobler than kings?  

We often wonder how God is working through our world and its leaders—corrupt, vain, and petty as they often are. Yet God’s hand is in control, whether we recognize it or not.  As Esther unfolds, we will see that God is working straight through the whims and follies of Ahasuerus and his officials. Pray that God will help you to trust that His hand is at work in our times as well. 

God’s law sets the rules for how men and women, parents and children, and superiors and subjects ought to relate. It is pitiful to see a king, who lacks all fear of God, try to gain by civil law the respect that he did not earn by his actions and personal dignity (v. 20). How can God’s values help you to gain respect? 

The world prizes the outward appearance of people. The world, sadly, has no regard for the beauty of Christ (Isa. 53:2). The Bible prizes inward beauty, moral and spiritual beauty, particularly the beauty of a submissive spirit toward authority (1 Peter 3:3–6). This was a key character quality of Esther, who sought wise counsel and obeyed Mordecai (vv. 15,20). How can you be exercising and developing such humility? Do you follow the world’s standards of beauty or God’s? 

Christ desires the beauty of His bride, as you can read in the messianic song, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him” (Ps. 45:11). Are you part of Christ’s bride? Paul identified the bride of Christ by her submission to the Lord as her head (Eph. 5:23–24). Is your heart submitted to Jesus as Lord? How does that show in your actions? 

We do not know exactly what Mordecai’s reason was for not bowing to Haman. However, we do know that the world wants us to submit to its schemes and often demands a public sign of submission (Dan. 3). When we fail to fall into line, we face the consequences, which may include social isolation, insult, and incarceration—or worse. The great question is this: Will you bow to God alone with all your mind, heart, and strength? 

The way in which Haman schemed and bargained for the destruction of the Jews reminds us that the world hates God’s people and delights in their destruction (John 15:18; Rev. 11:7–10; 20:7–9). Certainly the world showed its true colors when it tortured and murdered the Son of God on the cross. When you face persecutors, and rulers like Ahasuerus and Pontius Pilate, who permit such gross injustice, pray that as a Christian you will not respond in hatred but remember that you too were once full of hatred. Labor to be respectful and gentle to all men, hoping and praying that God will regenerate them by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:1–8).  

Though God’s name does not appear in the book of Esther, Mordecai’s conviction that deliverance will come to the Jews (v. 14) clearly suggests he has confidence in the fact that God would not forsake His people and promise. His confidence in God’s providence did not make him passive however, but energized him to call Esther to act decisively for her people. Believing that God is in control never excuses us from using our position and abilities for the good of His people. Instead, it gives us hope that God has put us here for that very purpose, and will therefore give success to our efforts to serve His cause. How do God’s promises energize you? 

Esther listened to the counsel of Mordecai, evidently believed the promises of God about His people, and resolved to take action. And yet she needed discernment about her course of action and called for fasting (v. 16) and presumably prayer as well. Likewise with us, knowing the will of God requires listening to wise people whom God places in our lives (especially parents and pastors), knowing and believing His Word, resolving to obey Him at any cost, and praying for His wisdom while asking other Christians to pray too. What significant decisions are you facing or will you face soon? How can you use these same means to discern God’s will? 

What a difference there is between Ahasuerus’s throne and the Lord’s throne! Because of Christ, heaven’s throne is called a throne of grace, which is always open for needy sinners to come to “obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). As believers praise God that we can come before the Lord’s throne with boldness (Heb. 10:19–22). 

When Esther fasted and sought God with God’s people (4:16), it resulted in remarkable courage and wisdom. She risked her life to speak with the king in order to save Israel. Yet she did not rashly rush to him, demanding help, but thoughtfully and with apparent calmness, invited him to a feast. This is the power of God’s grace obtained through fervent prayer. While this was brought about through a crisis, it was also the result of habits of humility developed over years (2:15,20). How can you grow in wisdom and peace like Esther, so that you can respond well to crises? 

Haman’s arrogance, we might say, was 75 feet high. The perceived insult of a single man outweighed all the honor and wealth he had received. As a result, he was provoked to murder a faithful servant in the king’s administration. Which weighs most heavily upon your heart: gratitude for the honors and blessings you have undeservedly received or an insult? Beware, lest your pride drive you to hatred and perhaps even the harm of others. 

God’s providence not only appears in mighty miracles, but in mundane events like a king who cannot sleep and so reads some boring government records. Billions of such events take place every day, and we scarcely notice them, but the Lord directs every one of them according to His decree (Eph. 1:11). His timing is perfect, reminding the king of Mordecai’s faithfulness just as Haman comes to have him hung. How can this give Christians hope to know that this God of providence is our Father? 

Haman was a high official in the mighty Persian Empire, but he could not destroy a conquered and dispersed people, for they were the people of the living God. On the contrary, his empty boasting and foolish pride only led him into shame and defeat. Let us not fear those who persecute the church, but rather pity them and pray for them. 

Esther here is a picture of Christ. Just as Esther publicly identified herself with the Jewish nation so that the king would not destroy them, so Christ publicly identified with His people of all nations so that His Father would not destroy them. Esther risked her life by identifying with the Jews; Christ gave His life as the substitute and surety of His people, bearing the punishment for their sins. Esther pled for her nation, and Christ intercedes for each of His children from heaven. How does this picture help you appreciate the work of Christ on your behalf? 

Haman’s devices were all brought to light and punished. Many today walk in pride and seem to have everything going for them. God’s Word reminds us that the day is coming when everything that has been done in secret will be brought into full light (1 Cor. 4:5). How does Haman’s story motivate you to be humble and live in the fear of the Lord? 

Haman’s death illustrates the work of Christ, yet with great irony. Haman was destroyed by the gallows he constructed for Mordecai. Like Haman, Satan plotted Christ’s destruction through the cross, only to have his power shattered by Christ’s death (John 12:31–33; 13:2; 14:30; 16:11). However, though Haman was hung upon the gallows (Hebrew, “tree”), it was not Satan but Jesus Christ who was hung upon the cross (“tree,” Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29) to pacify God’s righteous wrath by bearing the curse of God against lawbreakers (Gal. 3:13). Oh, the wonder of His love! Worship Christ in light of this strange victory: death for Him and salvation for sinners! 

Just as Ahasuerus gave Mordecai his signet ring and glorified him as a great prince in the Persian Empire in order to save the Jews from destruction, so God the Father has given Jesus Christ all authority in heaven and earth as our exalted Priest and King in order to save His people from eternal destruction (Matt. 28:18; John 17:2; Heb. 8:1). He is glorified at the Father’s right hand with unspeakable beauty, joy, and riches. If we belong to Christ, what things are ours (1 Cor. 3:21–23) and how is God working on our behalf (Rom. 8:28,32)? 

Note the great joy of the Jews as the king grants Esther’s petition to respond in like to their enemies (vv. 15–17). The Jews had essentially been brought back from a sentence of death. If the Jews’ redemption from physical death caused such joy and elation, how much more should this be so of us, if we have been redeemed from a far greater death than physical death? Why then do Christians sometimes have so little joy? Look in Phil. 4:4 for the key. Just as the Jews rejoiced in the glory of Mordecai, so believers must focus their minds and engage their hearts to rejoice in the glory of Jesus Christ, our heavenly King. 

In an amazing reversal, the destruction of the Jews was turned into their victory over their enemies. The seed of Israel went from the bottom to the top. Our God is a God of great reversals (1 Sam. 2:4–8; Luke 1:52–53), the greatest of which is the resurrection from the dead of Christ, who died the accursed death on the cross, and His exaltation to God’s right hand. Christian, even if you are the lowest of the low in this world, take heart. Humble yourself right now before the Lord, and He will lift you up, even into the glory of Jesus Christ. 

God’s works deserve to be commemorated. Though all the shadows of the Old Testament, including the feasts, are fulfilled in Christ (Col. 2:16–17), Christians are called to lives of sacrifice to God for the redemption He has performed. We are also called weekly to commemorate the final victory of Christ over death in His resurrection (1 Cor. 16:1–2; Heb. 10:25). Christians should ever be characterized by giving thanks to God for His mercies to oneself, one’s family, one’s people, and the church throughout the world. 

This book concludes with a lovely image of Mordecai reigning as the king’s right-hand man for the peace of the covenant seed. Christ is our peace through His blood, and the gospel is His proclamation of peace to those near and far, Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:14– 17). He reigns forever over heaven and earth and is enjoying the fulfillment of God’s promise that He will see His spiritual seed and be satisfied with the fruit of His sorrows (Isa. 53:10). He is a far better king than any Persian emperor, for rather than using up His subjects’ money and labor, He gives them all good gifts (Eph. 4:7–8). Are you part of Christ’s spiritual family? Has He spoken peace to your soul through the gospel of His death for sinners? Does He reign over you as your Lord? Is He your hope for glory? If so, rejoice. If not, pray for grace to surrender to Christ today.