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RUSSELL SANDERS
3-16-2022
ESTHER – PART 3
THE QUEEN’S BOLD PLAN
When Queen Esther read the copy of Haman’s decree that Mordecai had sent her, she replied to him about the strict protocol of approaching the king. Only those summoned were allowed to see him. Anyone coming uninvited would be put to death unless he chose to extend his gold scepter to them. She was fearful of her life if she were to appeal to the king.
Mordecai replied to her (communicating via messengers) that the lives of all Jews were at stake, including hers, and she was the only one in position to speak to the king about it. He wrote to her in Esther 4:14b, NKJV, “…who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
She replied that she would go to the king and said in verse 16b, “and if I perish, I perish.” She instructed him to have all the Jews in Sushan to fast for her three days and nights. She had a plan.
When the three days of fasting were done, she presented herself uninvited in the king’s inner court. He extended the gold scepter and asked what she wished. She requested that King Ahasuerus and his chief ruler attend a banquet she had prepared the next day and he agreed.
At the banquet, he asked again what she wished, and it was for another banquet the next day. Only the king and Haman were to be there with her. That night, after the first banquet, the king could not sleep. By his order in Esther 5:1-3, the king’s chronicles were brought and read to him. Here it was written how Mordecai had saved his life by spoiling an assassination plot. When he asked if Mordecai had been rewarded for this, they replied in verse 3, “there is nothing done for him.” He then called Haman and told him how to publicly give great honor worthy of a king to Mordecai.
Haman had that day already constructed a gallows, that was 75 feet tall at his house upon which he planned to hang Mordecai. Now this honor given to Mordecai, which he had thought was for himself, caused him great distress as he sensed “his star falling.” However, he went to the second banquet.
It was at that banquet that Esther revealed Haman’s order to kill all Jews. This would also require the queen to be killed. This made the king angry. He learned of the gallows Haman had built and ordered Haman to be hung on his own gallows.
This was done in the third month. The order to kill Jews was to be done on one single day, the 13th day of the 12th month by the Jewish religious calendar. Tomorrow we shall write of God’s deliverance which is the reason for the Jewish Feast of Purim which begins at sundown or 6:00 p.m. this evening.
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