Esther 1

The Book of Esther has some uncommon characteristics:

• It is only one of two books named after women (the other being Ruth)
• It is only one of two books where God is not mentioned directly (the other being Song of Solomon).  However, even though God is not mentioned directly, it is clear that He is at work, especially in delivering His people from annihilation.   So, I have entitled the series "Looking for God's Hand at Work".   My hope is that as our spiritual senses are heightened, we may become more aware of how God works in our lives, which should naturally lead to thanksgiving and praise to Him.

I decided to study it since we have already studied many of the other Books of the Bible during the time period of the Persian Empire (Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah).   In fact, the events of Esther occur between the first and second return of the exiles to Jerusalem.  King Xerxes or Ahasuerus is the son of Darius (king during Haggai and Zechariah) and grandson of Cyrus (king during the beginning of Ezra who made the decree to allow the return).

We are not introduced to Esther until chapter 2, but, chapter 1 provides the Background to the events leading to Esther becoming queen.   Towards the beginning of Xerxes's reign, he throws a banquet to flaunt his wealth and splendor for six months.   After that, he then invites everyone in the capital and has a drinking party.   When he is drunk, he then wants to show off Queen Vashti.  It's almost as if he was wondering what else he could put on display.  The fact that he became furious and burned with anger when she refused shows that he was likely not very nice when drunk.  And the royal decree he signed into law that Vashti be replaced by another seemed to be an over-reaction, along with the dispatches to enforce male dominance in each household.

While these were fairly negative events, this is a good example of how God causes good to come out of bad.  He is able to use these circumstances as part of His Plan.   It also shows that even before we are ever aware of it, God is often already at work preparing.   The outcome of all this was a royal decree which would enable Esther to become queen at a time the nation of Israel needed it.