The Bible Recap - Day 266 (Esther 1-5) - Year 6

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. I want to give you a heads up that today's podcast might not be the best for younger ears. I'm going to talk openly about what's happening in the text here. This story has an important theme and a beautiful ending, but there are some horrific stops along the way, so use your own discretion. Esther is generally regarded as historical narrative, but one other thing to note is that it's the only book

in the Bible that doesn't mention God's name. Maybe you didn't even notice that in our reading today because we see him in the shadows of every scene, working things out and keeping with his plan and his promises. We open in the capital of Persia, working things out in keeping with his plan and his promises. We open in the capital of Persia, the empire that toppled Babylon while the Jewish exiles were living there. Ahasuerus is king. We first met him in Ezra 4 just a few days ago. He was one of the kings who got a letter from the angry locals during their letter-writing campaign to stop the rebuilding of the temple. He's not a follower of Yahweh, he's just a regular pagan king in a pagan empire.

In history, he's typically referred to as Xerxes I. At this point, he's three years into his reign, which makes it approximately 483 BC. He throws a massive six-month party, presumably for himself, and invites everyone to see how rich and awesome he is. If you don't like it when people celebrate their birth week or birth month,

you probably wouldn't like King Ahasuerus. His wife, Queen Vashti, was a real looker, and as the grand finale for his self-serving soiree, he wants her to come out and take a lap in her crown, and possibly nothing else. If ancient Jewish commentaries are correct, it seems King A wants to parade his naked wife in front of all the men at his banquet.

Even if these weren't the specifics of his request, Vashti refuses to come, which is an affront to his ego and his throne. He calls a staff meeting to find out what kind of punishment he's allowed to hand out to her. And his advisors say that they are personally offended by her response because now their wives will feel like they can do whatever they want to. If these Persian men can't earn the respect of their wives by treating them well, they'll legislate it.

They brainstorm and decide to write a law banishing and replacing Vashti. In order to find Vashti's replacement, the king's advisors decide to throw a mandatory beauty pageant. They gather all the young beautiful virgins from the 127 provinces in King A's territory, essentially kidnapping them and forcing them to come to Susa to be

in the King's harem. To be fair, some commentators suggest this could be voluntary, but given how King A and his advisors seem to view females, it's doubtful. What happened here is probably more along the lines of human trafficking of girls in the age range of 12 to 14. By the way, the king would have been roughly 40 years old at this time. The king's staff spends about a year preparing each girl. Then they dress them up and make them look nice

so he can decide which one he wants that night. For King A, choosing a new queen is an audition process where each girl spends the night with him and is sent away in the morning. Essentially, what's happening is the king is systematically deflowering all the girls he's kidnapped over a period of years to decide which one he likes best. After their night with the king,

they're added to his growing list of concubines while King A moves on to the next, devastating an entire generation of females in Persia. Among those is a girl named Esther. She's basically been raised by her cousin Mordecai because her family were exiles back in the day and she's been orphaned at some point. Fortunately, cousin Mordecai is really protective of her

and he has a good position despite being a Jew in Persia. He tells Esther to keep her nationality a secret because it will not go over well. Meanwhile, in the King's harem, four years after Queen Vashti is dismissed, the King finally chooses Esther for the night. That's almost 1,500 days and possibly 1,500 girls later. Esther exercises wisdom and humility,

and God grants her favor with the people she encounters, including the King, who makes her his new queen. Not long after that, Mordecai overhears a plot to attack King A. He passes the word to Esther, who tells her new husband the bad news. The conspirators get hanged, and normally Mordecai would be honored, but instead he's forgotten. This divine oversight sets the table for what's next. In chapter 3, the king establishes a new second-in-command, Haman the Agagite, a descendant of the Amalekites,

one of Israel's oldest enemies. But Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman. Some commentators say this could be Mordecai's effort to honor God's commandments by not worshiping anyone but Yahweh, but probably not. Most think this is actually a bit of pushback from Mordecai because of the racial tension that exists between the Jews and the Amalekites. It kind of backfires though because now Haman not only wants to kill Mordecai, specifically, but all the Jews. Racism isn't just wicked and arrogant, it's irrational. Haman decides to take action. He throws some dice to help choose the date when he should have all the Jews slaughtered. Then he gives a keynote presentation to King A in hopes of making his case. He says these outsiders are disobeying the law and have to be stopped. In order to

make sure he gets a yes, he offers to pay for the execution himself, to the tune of 750,000 pounds of silver. In today's prices, this doesn't even seem possible. It's nearly 150 billion dollars. That's more money than Jeff Bezos has. That's how much Haman values his ego, and that's how much he hates the Jews. The number may seem fake at first glance, but some commentators believe the text hints that he plans to steal the money from the Jews after he murders them. It's not entirely clear, but it seems like King A agrees to pay for it instead. They draft letters and send them to all the provinces on the day before Passover. Remember Passover, the day the Jews celebrate God's deliverance

from their Egyptian slavery? And here, on the day before that celebration is set to begin, word goes out that the Jews in Persia will be slaughtered in just 11 months. It probably takes about 3 to 4 months for the letters to reach all the provinces, but the people in Susa know right away because they're local, and the whole town is thrown into a panic. Meanwhile, King A and Haman kick back with some cocktails in the castle like they hadn't just ordered a genocide. When word reaches Mordecai, he immediately goes into mourning.

Esther tries to get Mordecai to downplay things so he doesn't lose his job, but instead he's like, no, I don't need to calm down, you need to step up. Go in and beg the king to put a stop to this. Esther reminds him that there are rules against that. She has to be invited in, and she's not even sure when that will happen. In fact, she hasn't even seen her husband in a month. Mordecai reminds her that her life is on the line too, and that this may be the very reason she's in this position to begin with.

She seems emboldened by his rebuke slash pep talk, and she says, okay, we'll all fast for three days, then I'll see if he'll let me speak to him. The reality is I'll probably either die because I go to him or I'll die because I don't, so I guess it's a risk worth taking. Esther makes her plan and leans into her strengths, beauty and poise and discretion. When the king invites her in, she returns the favor by inviting him and Haman to dinner.

He's loving it and he offers her anything she wants up to half his kingdom. She's clever, so she just asks them both to come to another feast tomorrow night. Haman is feeling pretty special right about now, but the ego that soars when it gets praised is the ego that crashes when it gets refused, which is exactly what happens when Haman sees Mordecai refusing to bow to him on the way home. His wife tries to console him by saying he should build a giant gallows for Mordecai, and that idea cheers him up, so he orders the gallows to be constructed overnight. Like I mentioned at the top of today's episode, God doesn't appear anywhere

in the Book of Esther, but he's working behind the scenes everywhere. My God shot today was in 414, where Mordecai says, if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Mordecai knows God has promised to preserve his people, and he trusts that God will be faithful to his word. He lets Esther know that she may be the very tool God uses to accomplish his plans and fulfill his purposes. Despite being in mourning, despite being under a death threat, Mordecai leans into what he knows to be true

about Yahweh. He's our only hope, and he's where the joy is. Hey Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How are you doing? Did you know that as of today, you have less than 100 days of Bible reading before you complete this trip through Scripture? If this is your first time through, you're going to be able to say you've read the entire Bible. Maybe the remaining 99 days will take you just that, 99 days. Or maybe it'll end up taking you

longer. But whatever pace you're moving at, you're moving toward God. So keep moving. You're learning more and more about His character every single day. And just like we saw in today's reading, learning more and more about His character every single day. And just like we saw in today's reading, God is always behind the scenes working things out in His perfect timing, just like He did with Esther and Mordecai and the Jews and their enemies. So you're always right on time. And you aren't on this journey alone. He's with you.

So let's keep going.