Esther 5
Hello!
I hope you all are doing great! We are reaching Thanksgiving and then before we know it, it will be Christmas! Where has the time gone? We are back to continue learning about Esther and what is going on her in world. Can you believe that we are already on chapter 5! If you haven’t read chapter 5 yet, you can do so here (Esther 5). Let’s dive right in!
Theme: We should have trust and hope in God’s hidden hand to bring good and defeat evil, even when His acts are not immediately apparent.
Key Point: Remember that God is not mentioned in the Book of Esther, but we do see God’s hand working through out the story.
Recap: Haman got promoted in King Xerxes palace to be the highest official. Haman then created a decree to kill off all the Jews in their nation due to Mordecai not bowing down to him at the King’s gate. Mordecai is angry and quite upset. He runs into the city and starts making a scene and telling all the people what is happening. Meanwhile Esther has no idea what is going on. She has no idea that there is a decree to kill all her people. She sent out a helper to communicate with Mordecai to figure out what happened. She has now learned what is happening and Mordecai told her to go speak to the King about this. If she goes and speaks to the king, she may be killed if the King does not accept her invite. She told Mordecai to fast for 3 days and then she will go and speak to the King.
Chapter 5 starts on the 3rd day of Queen Esther’s fast—I think it’s very important to think about what fasting is: It’s a time where you abstain from food during a period of time and you intentionally spend time with The Lord in prayer. I have done fasts with social media or other items that I have been struggling with to get my heart and mind focused back on God. Esther is faced with a big decision. Does she risk going to the King and him rejecting her (which means she would die) and speak about what Haman has planned, or does she sit quietly and watch all of her people get murdered due to one man’s hatred for her people. I, personally, would make that type of decision after spending time in prayer too.
Finally, after time in prayer, Esther put on her royal robe and entered into the inner part of the palace, standing at the entrance looking at King Xerxes. He looks happy to see her and extends the gold scepter. Again, how terrifying would it be to walk up to the door and see him and hope that he is happy to see her. I would be shaking and so anxious. We see time after time that Esther is here for a reason. She was liked and everyone was pleased with her through the process to become Queen and, even still, King Xerxes is pleased with her. When she was accepted by the gold scepter, the King asked what is her request. He even went as far as saying she can have up to half the kingdom. (I did read that saying he would give her half of the kingdom was more of a gesture than serious.)
Queen Esther had the opportunity to spill out exactly what she wanted but instead she asked to have a banquet with King Xerxes and Haman. He was thrilled and asked for Haman so they could attend the banquet. King Xerxes had some wine and then asked Esther once again what was her request. He even repeated the fact that she could have up to half the kingdom. She told him that she would like to prepare a second banquet for both of them tomorrow and then she would give her request. I want to take a note that we see King Xerxes impulsiveness and his way with wine here as well. We are definitely seeing a pattern with him. Some say that Esther requested to have a second banquet because she was nervous and wasn’t confident in what she wanted to ask. Others say, that she wanted to make sure King Xerxes and Haman were both buttered up and in a good mood so that way her request would be easier to swallow.
After the first feast, Haman feels extremely happy and is in a great mood. When he passes by the gates, Mordecai did not kneel or acknowledge the presence of Haman. Haman was filled with rage. He did nothing but go home. He got together his friends and family and boasted about his wealth and what happened today. He boasted about how he became the highest official and even how he was the only one other than King Xerxes that got invited to Queen Esther’s banquet. He then tells them about Mordecai and how it made him feel. Then his wife and friends told him to get a 50 cubit high (75 feet) pole, go to the king before the banquet tomorrow and ask him to have Mordecai be impale by the pole.
I have no words other than “what?!” for the last section of chapter 5. When Haman was dismissed by Mordecai and Haman felt enraged by him. He chose not to kill him at that moment. Instead he goes to his wife and friends and boasts about all the amazing things he has and does. He is needing that validation that he is this wealthy awesome guy. All because one man is not afraid or acknowledges him. Haman did a real human thing but we can also see that he is not a child of God but he only admires the worldly things. Even if Mordecai would’ve kneeled down at the very beginning, I think Haman would still feel unhappy and continue to strive to be at the very top and boast about it to everyone. Something that really bothers me is his wife. We don’t know much about her other than the fact that she and the friends had the idea about killing Mordecai. This also shows that she is not a child of God either. Coming up with the 75 foot pole to impale Mordecai (other versions of the Bible state gallows to be hung on vs pole to be impaled on) is a very impulsive idea. It shows the pride that Haman had.
This chapter had a lot to unpack. I really like Esther and Mordecai’s faith going into this chapter. This type of courage and strength does not come from just ourselves. It comes from the strength of God. Even though in this story, Esther and Mordecai have a huge life or death challenge to face we can also apply this in our daily life. We all face different types of challenges, big or small. We cannot face these challenges on our own. When we do just rely on ourselves, we will continue to fail and fail. We need God. This chapter is a good reminder that we (more so myself) get caught up on our worldly things. Like having the best looking place, money, best looking clothes, best car, etc. I forget that ultimately these things will not follow me when I meet Jesus. Yes, these things are nice and we do need some of these items to function in our daily lives but we shouldn’t be consumed by it. We should take pride in our faith and the strength that God gives you to function on our daily lives. We have proof daily of what it looks like to be searching for more and more to fill that empty hole when God is the only thing that can fill that empty hole.
I am so glad to have you with me as we go through the Book of Esther. I am interested to see how the second banquet goes and if Haman talks to King Xerxes before the banquet. I hope you will come back next week with me to find out! Have a great week and remember: You got this!
Created for a purpose
