No 6

Esther

The woman who we will be studying here has many titles, among which are the self-sacrificing woman, the woman for an emergency, the courageous woman and the patriotic woman. She was named queen by King Ahasuerus who, at the time, had passed a decree removing royal estate from the former queen, Vashti, because of her unfaithfulness to him. The new queen was a Jewess who had been adopted by her cousin, Mordecai and had been carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Her name was Hadassah but her Persian was Esther. The Bible says that she was “fair and beautiful” (Est 2 :7) and that King Ahasuerus “preferred her and her maidens unto the best place of the house of the women” (Est 2 :9). She was used by God to preserve His people, the Jews, in this foreign country because a certain man named Haman hated the Jews and wanted to destroy them. Twice she came before the king at the risk of her life to plead for her countrymen. The Bible records in Esther 4 verse 16 that “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish”. She did not care for her life but was more interested in preserving the lives of her people. In Esther 7 she told the king of the plot that Haman had made to destroy the Jews and boldly she said “ The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” (v6). She was a true hero and the Jewish holiday of Purim was created to commemorate these events. We will look at this feast in our next study.