| “Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer … So will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:15-16). |
| Esther is another very interesting book of the Bible, and shows how the Lord preserves and cares for His people, even when they are in a foreign land, and perhaps are not honoring Him as they should. The book of Esther takes place during the reign of king Ahasuerus, whose real name was Xerxes. He reigned from 485 B.C. to 474 B.C., so the book of Esther took place some years before we read about Ezra and Nehemiah. |
| Esther was a young girl whose parents had died, and a relative named Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. They did not live in the land of Israel, but lived in the Persian empire, where their ancestors had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar. She was apparently a very attractive girl, and eventually the Persian king Ahasuerus chose her for his queen. This was of course quite a wrong thing for a Jewess to do, for they were not to marry outside of the people of Israel. This is probably the reason that the name of God is not mentioned in the whole book of Esther, but we certainly see God working on behalf of His people. |
| A man named Haman was a high official in the Persian government, and he did not like Mordecai, nor did he like the Jews as a people. He wanted to get rid of them all, and persuaded the king to kill all the Jews on a certain day. Mordecai appealed to Esther to go to the king, and to ask him to do something about this. However, it was against the law for anyone, even the queen, to go into the king’s presence without being invited. The king might welcome someone who came in, but he also might execute them, if he decided he did not like their coming in to disturb him. But Esther decided to go in, and to trust the Lord as to the king’s reaction. |
| I will not tell you the rest of the story, but read it for yourself in the book of Esther. It is all very interesting, and remarkable how the Lord used Esther to deliver the Jews from harm. Also, let us remember that the Lord can, and does, still work today on behalf of you and me, to protect us. |
