The Book of Esther

The book of Esther, a quick recap of history.  

We finished the book of Nehemiah and now onto the book of Esther. Today, I would like to take a moment and provide a brief historical spotlight on this book. 

The book of Esther takes place in Babylon in 480 BC. 56 years earlier under Cyrus king of Persia the Jewish people are able to leave Babylon, 536 BC, and go rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. God told Ezra that the king was going to give him all the materials needed and help fund the whole thing.  Ezra 1:1 says, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing”

So Esther becomes queen of Persia while the Jewish people are rebuilding the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. The arch nemesis in Esther is a man named Haman. This man is a Persian noble under king Xerxes. He was an Agagite, a descendent of Agag, the king of the Amalekites. Years before, the Jewish people totally destroyed the Amalekites when they entered the promised land. Therefore, their descendants have hated the Jews for hundreds of years. The timelines would tell us that while Ezra was off building the temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish people had their own issues back in Babylon.  

Nehemiah comes into the scene after Ester in 445 BC, some 35 years after Esther becomes queen of Persia. Artaxerxes, the king who sent Nehemiah to build the wall, was the son of Xerxes the 1st.  Xerxes, if you remember, was moved by God to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and he sent Ezra to do it. Now, what makes this a cool story is that Xerxes the 1st was the king whom Esther would become the queen under.  So Ester would become the chess piece from the Lord in which King Xerxes might have heard more about the Jewish people and their God. While the Jewish people are struggling to get started again in Jerusalem, Xerxes’ son, Artaxerxes has Nehemiah, his cup bearer, tell him all about his people and their struggles. This was just 35 years after Esther became queen. Nehemiah 2:2 says, “so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

The scene is set. The Jewish people are returning home to Jerusalem. They find a complete mess but under Ezra and Nehemiah, the temple of Lord is being rebuilt. Esther becomes queen of Persia and with the Lord’s help, foils a plan to take out the entire Jewish people out genocide style. This man, Haman, would almost be successful, but the Lord had a plan. In fact, he will use some very unlikely common people to carry out His plan. The book of Esther begins.

The most famous line is when Mordecai says to Esther that she was born for such a time as this.  Before this whole book started, Esther was just a Jewish girl under a foreign king in a florigen nation.  You might be thinking like Esther, feeling lost, out of your element, and/or maybe even far from home living under someone else’s rules.  As we go through the book together, try to realize that God never left his people.  In fact, he was setting them up even in a foreign country by using a slave girl named Esther.  You never know who God will use, it just might be you.