Sermon Tone Analysis

Background

I. Contents

This book, in which the name of God is never explicitly mentioned, yet His sovereignty and faithfulness is prominently displayed.

The description of the Persian Empire, its ceremony and customs, suggests that Persia had not yet fallen to Alexander the Great.

Therefore the book must have been written before 330 B.C.

Esther describes the deliverance of the Jewish people from the total destruction plotted against them during the reign of Ahasuerus, a Persian king generally identified with Xerxes I (485–465 B.C.).

The providential arrangement of circumstances thwarts the plan of Haman, the powerful favorite of the king, who sought vengeance upon the Jews because one of them, Mordecai, refused to bow down in obeisance to him ().

The primary message of the book is God’s protection of his people, perhaps to be understood through this book as the seed of the woman (), through which he preserves and carries on his plan of redemption.

II.

Author and Date

The book of Esther prophesies the downfall of the enemies of the Church and of all those who oppose the kingdom of God and his Anointed.

2:1–23 Queen Esther’s Rise

III.

Authenticity

Xerxes, at his attendants’ advice, ordered a search for Vashti’s successor (2:1–4).

The narrator revealed Esther’s nationality by first identifying Mordecai’s lineage as a Benjamite of the family of Kish.

Mordecai was Esther’s foster parent and elder cousin.

Esther (“Hadassah,” her Hebrew name) was among those brought to the king’s palace because of her exceptional beauty (2:5–9).

At Mordecai’s advice she concealed her nationality, a factor that figured in her advantage over the enemy Haman.

One year of purification was required for an audience with the king.

Esther was received by the king four years after the deposition of Vashti (479 B.C.; 2:16; 1:3).

She won his approval and became queen (2:10–18).

The western expedition against the Greeks by Xerxes’ Persian ships ended in disaster at Salamis in 481 B.C. His selection of Esther occurred after this debacle.

Because of serious doubts concerning the book’s religious value, both Jews and Christians long were reluctant to admit Esther to their respective canons.

Some Jews feared that by instituting a new feast the book implied that Moses was incomplete, but the rabbis came to hold it as equal or even above the Torah, perhaps because of the hope it promised their beleaguered people.

It was not admitted to the Christian canon until A.D. 397, and Luther still doubted the book’s importance.

The primary message of the book is God’s protection of his people, perhaps to be understood through this book as the seed of the woman (), through which he preserves and carries on his plan of redemption.

The book of Esther prophesies the downfall of the enemies of the Church and of all those who oppose the kingdom of God and his Anointed.

Read

Looking at Mordecai’s lineage, what stands out to you?

Daughter of uncle makes them first cousins.

Mordecai was a Babylonian name, likely taken from one of their gods, Marduk.

What is significant about the lineage mentioned here?

Who else came from the tribe of Benjamin?

2:5 The name Mordecai occurs in Persian treasury records of the period as the name of a government official, but whether he was this Mordecai is not known.

For the significance of the fact that Mordecai was a Jew and a descendant of Kish, the father of King Saul ()

First, he was described as Esther’s first cousin, and Esther herself was described as a “young woman” (na‘ara; ), which typically denotes a woman between adolescence and her early 20s at the latest, and p 686 hence Mordecai could not have been much older.

What about the position Mordecai had?

What does that say about him?

By this time, many Jews had the opportunity to return from exile.

Mordecai chose to stay:

Three stages of Israelite return from exile:

Zerubbabel (538 B.C.)

Esther likely occurs 483 - 464 BC

Ezra (458 B.C.)

Nehemiah (444 B.C.)

Many of the Jews exiled in 596 BC were influential; Mordecai’s relatives even could have been nobility.

reveals that the deportation specifically involved the men of valor, craftsmen, and smiths, and that only the poorest people of the land remained in Jerusalem during the 596 BC deportation.

The former empire, Babylon, intentionally utilized noble foreigners in their courts; Persia likely had similar practices ().

2:7 Hadassah (“myrtle”) is the Hebrew name of Mordecai’s cousin; Esther p 855 (“star”) is her Persian name.

The reference to her great beauty prepares the reader for what follows.

2:5 a Jew The common term for the Hebrew people after the exiles to Assyria and Babylon (compare ; ).

The narrative emphasizes Mordecai’s ethnicity to focus on the racial tension of the story and prejudices at work.

Mordecai A Babylonian name; Mordecai’s Hebrew name is never given.

a Benjaminite The narrative may emphasize Mordecai being a member of the Israelite tribe of Benjamin because his later foe, Haman, could represent an ancient foe of the Benjaminites, dating to the time of Saul (see note on ).

2:6 Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiachin (), was the second-to-last king of Judah.

He was deported to Babylon in 597 b.c.

(), 114 years before the present events.

Therefore, the clause who had been carried away from Jerusalem cannot refer to Mordecai (it would make him about 120 years old).

Rather, the clause must refer to “Kish, a Benjaminite” (the last-mentioned person in ), Mordecai’s ancestor (v.

5).

2:6 Jeconiah Jeconiah (also rendered as Jehoiachin) reigned for only three months in 596 BC, and it was following his reign that the first Babylonian deportation occurred.

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar reigned from 605–562 BC.

See note on .

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar reigned from 605–562 BC.

See note on .

Babylon See note on .

2:7 Hadassah (“myrtle”) is the Hebrew name of Mordecai’s cousin; Esther p 855 (“star”) is her Persian name.

The reference to her great beauty prepares the reader for what follows.

a beautiful figure and was very attractive Esther is described similarly to Rachel in .

The Hebrew expression here indicates that she is physically attractive—in terms of her body, including her face, and her overall appearance.

his uncle’s daughter Esther and Mordecai are technically first cousins, but Mordecai functions as Esther’s adopted father.

Mordecai’s uncle Abihail, who is of unknown origins (but presumably also from the tribe of Benjamin) is Esther’s father ().

and Joseph in

Let’s go to

a beautiful figure and was very attractive Esther is described similarly to Rachel in .

The Hebrew expression here indicates that she is physically attractive—in terms of her body, including her face, and her overall appearance.

Imagine your self in Esther’s position.

Young woman, barely out of her teens, if that, taken from a life she had known, thrust into a harem for a foreign king.

2:8–9 It was presumably an honor to be chosen for the harem, though it is unclear from the word taken whether she went willingly or unwillingly.

Given the king’s order, she presumably had no choice in the matter.

Once there, however, she appears to have been fully compliant, quickly winning the favor of Hegai, who provided her with the finest of everything and promoted her to the best place in the harem.

The seven chosen young women, her personal maids-in-waiting, already hint at her royal bearing and destiny.

Imagine your self in Esther’s position.

Young woman, barely out of her teens, if that, taken from a life she had known, thrust into a harem for a foreign king.

And it happened, at the proclaiming of the edict of the king and his law, when many young women were being gathered to the citadel of Susa under Hegai’s care, Esther was taken to the king’s palace under the care of Hegai who was in charge of the women.

What can we learn from Esther’s attitude here when the situation is as life-upending as this?

stolen from the life she knew

she has been taken into the harem of the king

never will she return to her uncles house

depression?

anxiety?

If the narrative of Esther is mapped to known historical events, then she becomes part of the king’s harem during Persia’s invasion of Greece.

This war lasted two years and included the burning of the Acropolis in Athens, but ultimately ended in defeat for the Persians (480–479 BC).

Although Persia remained primarily in control of their former empire—from India to Ethiopia, as 1:1 indicates—they never fully recovered from their defeat in Greece.

This war makes the events of the book of Esther chronologically problematic: It would be difficult, although not impossible, for king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to conduct the actions described in the narrative while engaged in warfare in Greece.

the king’s palace The women do not actually enter the king’s presence at this point, but instead merely begin living in his complex (compare v. 13).

The precise number of women gathered from around the empire is unknown, but Artaxerxes, the king after Ahasuerus, had 360 concubines, according to a much later historian, Plutarch (Artaxerxes 27.5).

King Solomon had 300 concubines and 700 wives ().

LEB

The young woman pleased him and she won favor in his presence, and he quickly provided for her beauty treatment and her portion of food, with seven chosen maids to give to her from the king’s palace, and he advanced her and her maids to the best part of the harem.