Esther: From Rags to Riches Essay

It is the dream of every little girl and the theme of at least half of all box office movies. It is the story of an ordinary girl who grows up to marry a king and live in a castle. In this case Esther was raised by a cousin, because her own parents had died. She was not a child of wealth or status, but a simple Jewish girl, who had the gift of beauty. She not only became a queen, but had the rare opportunity to save many of her people from certain death. The story of Esther plays out like an exciting and at times frightening fairy tale, in which the poor little orphan grows up to marry the king and live in a fabulous castle. The story would make an excellent Disney movie because it follows the fairy tale formula exactly, complete with an evil villain and the required happy ending. Anyone who hears or reads the story might be tempted to think it sounds like a common story and lose interest. What people will discover when they dig a little more deeply into the story find that it is far from ordinary. Esther was a very unique individual as was her story. The most unique aspect of the story is that it is a true story. Although virtually all young girls grow up dreaming about the handsome prince or king that will arrive and take them away from their boring or humble life, those same little girls grow up to discover that fairy tales do not happen in real life. The exception is the case of Esther. It is a fascinating story to read and even better when people realize the impact Esther had in the lives of her people. Through her faith in God and her quiet courage, the Jewish people in the country of Persia were saved from certain death. Besides the story itself, Esther showed uniqueness through her unyielding faith in God, her obedience to both God and her cousin Mordecai, her natural beauty and quiet disposition. Her actions in the face of fear demonstrated her uniqueness as did her well timed actions. She became a heroine in a time in which women were rarely considered significant for anything other than procreation simply by having faith and following through on it. Some of the most unique aspects of Esther’s story happen at the beginning of it. She was the daughter of a man named Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin. He and Esther’s mother both died when Esther was very young. She was taken in by her cousin Mordecai, who was the son of Abihail’s brother (Konig, 2008). There was no mention of a woman or wife of Mordecai being involved in raising Esther. In modern society Esther would have been considered an under priviliged child with minimal hope of future success. She would have been labeled as one of the children at risk of â€Å"slipping through the cracks and being forgotten†. Esther was a quiet, unassuming young lady, who did not ask for special treatment or privileges. She accepted her position in life and did what her uncle asked her to do. The exciting changes in her life began in the palace of King Ahasuerus, who at the time was the ruler of 127 provinces (Henry,). He was having a feast for all of the princes and officials in the kingdom. During this time his queen, Vashti held a banquet of her own for the women. After drinking wine, the king decided to summon Queen Vashti to show her beauty to the other men (Bible, New American Standard). The queen refused to go to the banquet when requested. The king asked the advice of his advisors on how to deal with her disobedience. They told him that if she was allowed to get away with being disobedient to him, other men’s wives would rebel against them as well. For this reason, they encouraged him to banish her. The king took their advice in order to send a message to the wives of the kingdom to obey their husbands. Once Queen Vashti was banished, the king needed to find a new queen. At this point he sent messengers out around the kingdom in search of virgins to be brought to the palace. These virgins were to be in the care of the king’s eunich Hegai. This is the point in the story where Esther and King Ahasuerus’ lives meet. Esther was one of the virgins who was sent to the palace from which the new queen would be selected. Esther did not go by her choice, but because she was told to go. Since Esther was a young woman of faith, she went as she was told. Esther would spend the next twelve months among many other young women at the palace, where she would undergo beauty treatments and preparation to be sent before the king. Most of the young women were there because they chose to be. They all hoped to be the next queen. Esther had no expectations along these lines, because the only reason she had gone was obedience. Many of the other girls whom Esther spent the year with had probably come from wealthy homes in which beauty treatments were normal rituals during growing up. Esther had undergone none of these things as a child. She still somehow with her quiet obedient manner and natural beauty, managed to capture the attention of everyone she met. Hegai favored her to the extent that he provided her with seven of her own maids and moved her to a place at the head of the harom (Bible, New American Standard Version). The competition was like the ultimate beauty contest or one of the new reality television shows in which the best girl wins the heart of the king. Since Kings usually chose their brides from one of the seven most important families in Persia, it was unique that in this case the king chose to select his new bride from the available virgins in the country (Bryce, 2006). When the time came for the girls to be presented to the King, each girl could take whatever she wanted with her. Esther chose to take only what was recommended for her to take by Hegai (Bible, New American Standard version). Each girl would be presented to the king for one night. The next morning she would be taken to a second harem for the concubines (Bible, New American Standard Version). The only way a girl would return to the king again was if he asked for her by name. When Esther was presented, the king was taken by her physical beauty and her quiet obedient nature. He chose her as his new queen. ). By winning the beauty contest that all the other girls dreamed of, she was placed in the perfect position at exactly the right time to have the opportunity to spare the lives of the Jewish people. She did this in the same calm obedient manner in which she had conducted her entire life, making her a true heroine. Her cousin Mordechai worked outside of the palace gates in a lowly position. At one time he heard two of the palace guards plotting to assassinate the king. Out of concern for the king, he passed this information on to Esther. Esther notified the king with the information in Mordecai’s name and it was documented that Mordecai was the person who was responsible for saving the king. The report was investigated resulting in the death of the conspirators and the appreciation of the king towards Esther and Mordechai. Later in the story, the King appoints a man named Hamon as his chief advisor and second in the country. He was a man who was very proud of himself and wanted a great deal of attention paid to him (Stewart, 2007). Hamon treated the king as a â€Å"person stroking a cat† (Kajer, 2007) which means he knew the one way to boost his ego and make sure the king would listen to him. He would make suggestions that would often appear to be the kings ideas. Because of this, Haman had a great deal of power and influence in the king’s decision making. He convinced the king to require everyone who saw Haman to bow before him. Mordechai refused to bow to Haman, because he was devoted to God and refused to bow to anyone except God. Some of the castle guards noticed that Mordechai did not bow as Hamon walked past. They asked him why and he said the reason was because he was a Jew (Bible, New American Standard Version). The castle guards reported to Haman that Mordechai was refusing to bow to him. This made Hamon very angry. Haman developed a strong dislike for Mordechai and decided to punish all of the Jewish people, because he did not want it to look like he was making a decision based solely on his dislike for one man. He proposed a plan to the king to execute all of the Jews on a specific chosen day, based on the information that the Jewish people had customs that went against the Persian customs. Haman went so far as to offer to deposit a large amount of his own money in the treasury to help pay for the army. The king showing little interest either way gave Haman his signet ring (Bible, New American Standard Version) and told him to keep his money and to do as he pleased with the Jews. Haman had the king’s scribes help him develop an edict stating that on a certain day all of the Jews young and old would be killed. Mordechai and the other Jews go into mourning at this time. Mordechai dressed in sackcloth and went to the palace gate. It was reported to Esther that Mordechai was at the gate dressed in sackcloth. She sent him clothes, but her refused them. He then sent a message back to her explaining the situation and asked her to talk to the king about the and tell him about haman’s evil reasons for wanting to kill the Jews. He told her to reveal her true identity as a Jew herself. Esther expresses her concern for her people, but explains to him that by going to the king she would be putting her life in danger as well. At that time there was a law stating that no one was allowed to go in to the king unless they were summoned by him. Anyone who broke this law and went into him could be put to death (Bible, New American Standard Version). The only exception to this rule was if the King raised his golden scepter to the person to allow them to approach and address him. Mordechai sent back another message saying that maybe the reason God had put her in the position of queen was to save her people. Because of her obedience to her cousin and her faith she was able to overcome her fear. She told him to have all the Jews fast and pray for three days and then she would go in to the king to see what happened. After the three days of fasting and prayer, Esther went before the king, he did not have her put to death, but instead promised her anything she wanted up to half of the kingdom. She could have asked at this point to have her people spared, but Esther knew the time was not right to reveal Haman’s plot. She simply asked for the king and Haman to join her for a dinner the following night. During the dinner, she invited both to a dinner again the next night. By that time Haman believed he had won Ester’s favor as well as the king’s. He went home quite happily and told his family about the two dinners he had been the only person besides the king Esther had invited. He felt good enough he decided to propose to the king that Mordechai be executed the next day. He was confident in enough in his power over the king that he had gallows built to hang Mordechai on as an example to the Jews. Ironically that same night, the king was unable to sleep and had the scribes come to read to him from the records. One of the things read during this time was the incident in which Mordechai had warned the king of the assassination plot against him (Bible, New American Standard). The king asked what had been done to thank Mordechai for saving him. The answer was that nothing had been done. At that time Hamon entered with the intention to tell the king of his plan to kill Mordechai. The king asked him what should be done for the person the king wanted to honor. Haman in his excessive arrogance (Stewart, 2008) thought that he must be the person that the king wanted to honor. He told the king to put the robes on him and have him ride through the town. The king told him to do that for Mordechai. This is a truly unique twist in this story as Haman must honor the man he wanted to kill. At the second dinner, Esther finally revealed that someone had plotted to kill her people and she would like for them to be spared. When the king asked who was plotting against her people, she explained it was Haman, The king was upset to the point that he had to leave the room. Haman then fell to the floor at Esther’s feet and begged for mercy. When the king returned to the room, he saw Haman with Esther and thought he was attacking her. At this point he demanded that Haman be executed. Haman was executed on the gallows he had built to execute Mordechai on. The King was unable to completely withdraw the decree he had sent out about attacking the Jews, because once a decree was signed and sent out, it could not be changed. He instead sent out another decree allowing the Jewish people to defend themselves by whatever means they needed. This resulted in fewer people attacking them and many of those who did were killed. It was extended into a second day and the Jews killed many of the people who hated them. Esther was the perfect person for God to choose for this job. She began life very humbly and was raised by a man who was her cousin with no mention of a maternal figure. In those days women were considered insignificant except for the purpose of procreation, therefore the very fact that a woman would carry out the task of saving the Jewish people from certain death was amazing. Esther was not an outspoken person or any kind of rebel. She was the kind of person who would be least likely to stand out in a crowd except for the Bible’s description of her obvious physical beauty. She was portrayed in the Bible as a young woman who followed authority with little question. Whatever Morechai asked of her she did, even if she would have preferred not to. This was evidenced by her hiding her Jewish heritage at the request of Mordecai (Bible, NIV) and entering the king’s throne room at the risk of her own life. She additionally was obviously a person who followed God’s wishes and who showed great faith in spite of the difficult youth she had endured. God used Esther through her faith to be an instrument for saving his people. Esther was raised to be an obedient faithful person who through that faith became one of the most influential women in the Bible. She did nothing outstanding nor was she a great fighter, but she showed a great amount of bravery in the face of possible death. She simply acted on obedient faith and allowed herself to be the instrument for God to use to save the Jewish people from a death caused by an angry bitter man. Her belief in God and her obedience made her the person to save her people. Only God could have designed a plan in which a young Jewish woman could end up married to a Persian king at the tight time to save an entire race (Platz, 2007). It is amazing how God works through people who have done nothing outstanding and whose only amazing trait was her incredible natural beauty.