Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help
Now traditionally in Judaism when the story of Esther is read, its an interactive story – which means you get to take part. Esther is basically a story of good guys and bad guys! So when you hear the name of Haman I want you to stamp your feet and boo. When you hear the name Esther I want you to clap your hands and cheer.
The story of Esther begins with a big party. The king who is called Xerxes, throws a big party and invites all the important people, all the politicians and military leaders to the party – a party that lasted 7 days!! On the last day the king decides he wants to show off his beautiful wife Queen Vashti, so he sends for her to come to the party – she has been having her own party with the wives. Now no-one says no to King Xerxes – he always gets what he wants but Queen Vashti says no – she is not coming to be shown off. Well the king is very angry with her and after some bad advice, he sends her away. But now he needs a new queen. So they hold a beauty pageant, bring all the beautiful young girls, who go through a lot of beauty treatments – it was the Persian equivalent of The Bachelor except the girls didn’t get an option of playing – they had to.
And now we meet Esther (cheer clap!) Esther is a young Jewish girl who is taken to be part of the beauty pageant. Her cousin Mordecai advises her to keep quiet that she is Jewish and because Esther is a wise young girl she listens to his advice. She also listens to the advice of the person in charge of the beauty pageant and because of this, and because Esther is very beautiful, the king chooses her to be his next queen.
Now the king has a prime minister, called Haman (boo, stamp). Haman gets cross with Mordecai and decides that the way to punish him is to destroy all the Jewish people, not just Mordecai – but Haman doesn’t know that his new queen Esther is Jewish.
As we heard in our reading Mordecai comes to Esther and tells her of Haman’s plan and asks her to go to the King and ask him to save her people. Esther reminds Mordecai that no one goes before the king without his having first asked them to come before him. Access to the throne room of the king is by his permission and if you do you die.
Mordecai then tells Esther “if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
If you have come to your position for such a time as this?
This is Esther’s decision – will she risk her life for her people?
Esther then shows us great wisdom, she doesn’t rush into it but instead she calls on her people to fast for 3 days, as she will with her maids. Now the story doesn’t tell us whether prayer was part of the fasting, but it may have been. At the end of the 3 days she is going to go to the throne room and approach the king, as she says to Mordecai – “if I perish I perish”
Esther has set her face towards this end, she will risk all if it means a chance at saving her people.
We left Esther having made the decision to go to the throne room of the king uninvited, we pick up now as she approaches the throne room, and we see she finds favour with the king, he allows her to approach and asks her what her request is. Esther doesn’t launch immediately into the situation of her people, instead she invites the king with Haman to a feast. She does this again when at the feast the king asks her again what her request is, her reply come again tomorrow evening.
And that evening she tells the king, that her life and the life of her people is in danger and that Haman is behind it. And in a reversal of fortune the king has Haman hanged on the posts that he had prepared for Mordecai and the Jewish people are saved and Mordecai becomes prime minister in the place of Haman.
Esther is a biblical hero. She mediates on behalf of her people in the throne room of the king and brings about their salvation. She points us to the Biblical Hero Jesus, the one who stands in the throne room of the King of Kings and mediates on our behalf, the one who brings about our salvation.
The story of Esther is unique because God is not mentioned once. But as we read or hear the story we can see God behind the scenes. Things happen in a way that only God could be behind them, moving at the right time. Esther is a story that reminds us that even when we can’t see God at work directly, he is still at work behind the scenes.
Esther may not be like other biblical heroes but she takes her role seriously, she is willing to die for her people and in that way she points us to the ultimate saviour Jesus, the one who did die that his people may be saved.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 