1 of 47

ESTHER

God’s Providential Queen

2 of 47

3 of 47

4 of 47

5 of 47

6 of 47

7 of 47

8 of 47

Pomegranate

  • Kingly connection to the divine
  • Life and death
  • Immortality (Immortals’ spears)
  • Symbol of Peace
    • King’s blessings upon you

​

​

​

9 of 47

​

​

​

  1. Pomegranate & lotus significant among Persian Kingship
  2. During Xerxes’ reign, the Myrtus communis flower wreath popular
    1. His immortal archers wore them, as did he

​

​

​

Remember the Hebrew word for Myrtus/Myrtle?

​

Myrtle = Hadas/Hadassah (הֲדַס/הֲדַסָּה)

​

10 of 47

​

​

​

Myrtle = Hadas/Hadassah (הֲדַס/הֲדַסָּה)

​

Zechariah 1

  • (V. 1) “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah” – about 521/520 B.C.
  • (V. 8) “I saw at night a man on a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees in the ravine
  • (V. 12) “how long will You take no pity on Jerusalem & Judah, on whom you have been indignant for these 70 years?”
    • How does this all link to Esther?

​

​

​

​

​

Zechariah, Exile, & Esther

11 of 47

Ritual & Protocol

  • Coronation
    • Humility to Majesty
      • Ctesias of Cnidus
  • Greeting
    • Sacred Hierarchies
    • Proskynesis
  • Banquets
    • Seating Proximity
  • Worship
    • Cleansing rites
  • Sacrament of Kingship
    • The “Invisible” King

​

​

12 of 47

Tonight’s Goals

  • Esther 4
    • Mordecai & the Jews learn of Haman’s plot
    • Mordecai cut off from Esther
    • Jewish worship in exile
      • Mourning, Covenant
    • Dangers of court protocol
    • Esther must choose

​

​

13 of 47

  • Adar & Nisan
    • 12th/13th/1st month
  • Lunisolar calendar
    • months/dates fluid by

days/weeks for holidays

  • Haman’s plot
    • Issued month prior to

Passover; Adar

    • 13th chosen intentionally?

​

  • Esther’s Fast/Feasts
    • Purim
      • 3 day feast
    • Destruction→Redemption

Haman’s Pur cast

Esther’s Fast, Date of Destruction

14 of 47

Xerxes relents

Esther 3:15 – Susa agitated

Why? Maybe I’m next!

​

​

  • Xerxes’ Empire begins to crack/his failures
    • Revolts & Paranoia
      • Magi faction sees history repeat itself

​

      • “Native” Persians?
        • Remember: Persians are an empire of conquered peoples

​

15 of 47

What do these have in common?

  • Rahab – Canaanite prostitute helped spies
  • Ruth – Moabite commits to God
  • Job – from land of Uz
  • Ninevites – some respond to Jonah
  • Jethro – Midianite priest/Moses’ father-in-law
  • The Centurion – servant healed, believed
  • Syrophoenician woman – praised for her faith

Truth Seekers

16 of 47

17 of 47

Slaughter of the Magi

  • Magi were a tribe of Media
    • Analogous to Levites
  • 522 B.C.
    • Darius, Smerdis, Magophonia
    • Culls magi number down
  • Persians anxious of history

repeating, Magi remember

18 of 47

Slaughter of the Magi

Parallels: Jews & Magi

  • Immigrants/subjects in a foreign land

​

  • Conquered and culled due

to fear of their “numbers” & rebelliousness

​

Matthew 2:1-12, 16

​

​

19 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:1-5

  • Narrative arc of Esther finally goes from dark to light

​

  • Mordecai & the Jews learn of the plot…but not Esther, yet

​

  • Sackcloth and Ashes

20 of 47

Exiles, Slaves, Free Again: Jewish Identity

Ezra 1:2-3

“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:  ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.’”

21 of 47

Jewish in Exile: Worship & Customs

  • Temple worship gone (587 B.C.)

​

  • Shift to oral/written tradition

​

  • Not quite synagogue worship yet

​

  • Sense of hopelessness

What did “Jewish worship” look like in Persia?

22 of 47

Jewish in Exile: Worship & Customs

  • Wisdom Literature, Psalms 137

“How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”

​

  • Ezekiel, Jeremiah, possibly Joel
    • Written before & during exile
    • Focus on observing God’s commands, not just temple worship
      • Circumcision (of the heart), Sabbath, mourning rituals, Covenant understanding

​

Al-Yehuda Tablets

23 of 47

Jewish in Exile: Worship & Customs

  • Jeremiah 31:33
    • “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
      • What’s he talking about here?

​

  1. Pointing toward Jesus
  2. Temple worship to relationship/heart (Jer. 7)

​

24 of 47

Sackcloth & Ashes

1. Recognition of Divine Judgment: Sackcloth appears whenever God’s hand of discipline is acknowledged (Amos 8:10)

​

2. Appeal for Mercy: Nineveh’s king covered himself with sackcloth in Jonah 3:6, and Yahweh relented.

​

(Adapted from Biblehub)

25 of 47

Sackcloth & Ashes

3. Temporary and Symbolic: Psalm 30:11 records God replacing sackcloth with joy, prefiguring ultimate redemption.

​

4. Prophetic Testimony: Elijah (2 Kings 1:8) and the two witnesses of Revelation 11:3 wear sackcloth as living signs of warning and hope.

(Adapted from Biblehub)

26 of 47

Jewish & Persian Identies Collide

  • Esther 4:1-2
    • “...he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly, And he came as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. ”
      • Why was Mordecai limited from his new position in the palace in the courtyards?

27 of 47

Jewish & Persian Identies Collide

  • King was to be kept from uncleanness
    • Water, Earth, Fire were to be pure
      • Fire – Could “defile” fire by burning unconsecrated items/meats
      • Water – no bodily fluids to touch rivers
      • Earth – kill “unclean” bugs, but with a sticks
    • Ash & torn clothing seen as defiled
      • “Rise, wash hands, get firewood” –Persian proverb
        • ** Mordecai can’t mourn & also be in the court

​

28 of 47

Jewish & Persian Identies Collide

King was to be kept from uncleanness

Court moved in search of the “eternal Spring”

29 of 47

Mordecai & All Jews Unite in Mourning

Esther 4:3

  • “...fasting, weeping, mourning rites, sackcloth…”

​

Esther 4:4-5

  • Esther unaware until her attendants tell her
  • Cut off from Mordecai, on her own
  • Tries to send Mordecai new clothing, he refuses
    • Why?
  • Hathach sent to discover reason for this mourning

​

30 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:6-11

​

  • Esther informed
  • Esther & Mordecai plan
  • Queenly protocol

31 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:6-8

​

  • Mordecai knows evidence is needed
    • Gives copy of edict
    • Tells of “off the record” bribe

​

  • Esther must act, Mordecai can’t

32 of 47

Protocol of the Court

  1. Shahanshah
    1. King of Kings
  2. Hazara-patis (Chiliarch)
    • “Master of a Thousand”
      1. Prime Minister/Vizier
  3. Chief officials (Stewards, Cup-bearers, Bureaucrats)
    • Head of the House of the Women (a Eunuch)
    • The King’s Eye
      • Intelligence

33 of 47

34 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:9-12

Why was it death to come before the King?

  1. Assassination attempts rampant
  2. Zoroastrian protocol
    1. Ritual cleansing
    2. King’s “WIFE/Mother of Heir” could be there, but his other women were called

35 of 47

Audience with the King: Protocol

Histories 1.99

  • “...established the rule…ordaining that none should enter into the presence of the king, but that they deal with him always through messengers; and that the king should be seen by no one; and moreover that to laugh or to spit in his presence is unseemly, and this last for every one without exception…so that his fellows, who had been brought up with him, might not be grieved by seeing him and make plots against him, but that being unseen by them he might be thought to be of different mould.”

36 of 47

Audience with Xerxes was Dangerous

  • Xerxes was moody, flighty, & easily insulted

Histories 7.27-29

  • Xerxes, Pythias, & the gift of a feast
    • Xerxes receives Pythias’ gift, reciprocates

with wealth

Histories 7.34-35

  • Thrashing of the Hellespont, engineers punished

Histories 7.37-39

  • Magi interpret an eclipse, Pythias asks a favor

without going though protocol, is punished for asking

​

​

​

​

37 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:11

Regarding being “summoned” to the King, why is Esther concerned that this is going to be a problem?

“I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days”

​

  • Queen for 5 years now
  • Xerxes’ passions cooling? Unclear

38 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:12-14

​

  • Encouragement from Mordecai
  • “For such a time as this”
  • Esther must act, Mordecai has done all he can

39 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:13-14

“Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish.

And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

40 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:13-14

“Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the other Jews.

​

  • Mordecai reminds her of the stakes
  • Put your head in the sand, you die, they all die
    • Can’t live in a bubble
      • Matt. 5:14-16
        • Light on a hill to glorify God

41 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:13-14

“For if you keep silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish.”

​

  • Mordecai reminds her of the Covenant
    • Closest reveal we have of God in Esther
      • Reveals he and Esther have kept the faith
      • Deliverance assured, have a part to play

42 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:13-14

“And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

  • Mordecai reminds her of our agency, our duty
    • Redeem the legacy of Saul/Benjamin
    • Do what their ancestors did not:
      • Uncompromising, faithful submission to God
        • Romans 12:1
          • What is true & proper worship?

43 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:15-17

​

  • Esther takes charge, Mordecai done all he can
  • It’s time to choose:
    • Hadassah or Esther
      • ***Only character with two names metintioned
  • Beauty, wit, and faith

​

44 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

Esther 4:15-17

  • Esther is: beautiful, intelligent, cunning…courageous

45 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

  • Esther decides, acts, & commits
  • Commands – All Jews in Susa to fast, as does she

46 of 47

The Providential Queen Begins to Move

  • Esther will go to the king, aware it is illegal (v. 16)
  • “If I perish, I perish”
    • Mordecai did as she commanded him

47 of 47

For such a time as this…

Read Esther 5

Comments/Questions?