Sermon Tone Analysis

Interactive Sermon

Interact with the story - feel free to laugh, cry, shout, dance and celebrate with the characters in the story.

When you hear certain characters, you can cheer or boo as is appropriate.

Haman is the bad guy.

Boo for Haman, Jewish traditions says his name should not be heard.

The noise makers are to drown out his name.

Mordecai is the good guy.

Clap or cheer whenever you hear his name.

Esther is the heroine.

When you hear her mentions exclaim Aah! That’s what everybody thinks, even if they don’t say it.

because she is beautiful in every way.

King Xerxes is another main character who is mentioned the most.

Whenever you hear the king mentioned give a little “duh-du-du-duh!

trumpet fanfare.

You will feel like you are in the royal palace.

Queen Vashti is supporting actress who needs encouragement.

Give her a “you go girl!” when you hear her mentioned.

There are a few other servants or Eunuchs who are mentioned by name.

I you feel like giving them a shout out like “bro!” or “dude!” I’m sure they will appreciate it.

Try to quiet down again quickly so we can get through this and everybody can hear the next line.

But if you get a little carried away, that would be normal for a Purim celebration.

After all, it is a time to let loose and celebrate freedom.

There is one more character who is never mentioned at all in the story, but who is really the most important character of all.

God or YHWH is never actually mentioned in the book of Esther, but His Presence is behind everything.

If you look and listen carefully, you will see Him, sometimes working or speaking through the other characters.

If you see God at work in the story, silently put up a hand and give Him praise!

Esther 1–10:3 (The Message)

The Beauty Contest

This is the story of something that happened in the time of King Xerxes.

In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers.

For six months he put on exhibit the huge wealth of his empire and its stunningly beautiful royal splendors.

At the conclusion of the exhibit, the king threw a weeklong party for everyone living in Susa, the capital—important and unimportant alike.

The party was in the garden courtyard of the king’s summer house.

The courtyard was elaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns.

Silver and gold couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of jewels, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones.

Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind.

The royal wine flowed freely— cheers to a generous king!

Meanwhile, Queen Vashti was throwing a separate party for women inside the royal palace.

On the seventh day of the party, the king, high on the wine, ordered the seven eunuchs who were his personal servants to bring him Queen Vashti resplendent in her royal crown.

He wanted to show off her beauty to the guests and officials.

She was extremely good-looking.

But Queen Vashti refused to comes.

King Xerxes lost his temper.

Seething with anger over her insolence, the king called in his counselors, all experts in legal matters.

It was the king’s practice to consult his expert advisors.

He asked them what legal recourse they had against Queen Vashti for not obeying his summons.

Memucan spoke up in the council of the king and princes: “It’s not only the king, she has insulted, it’s all of us.

The word’s going to get out: ‘Did you hear the latest about Queen Vashti?

King Xerxes ordered her to be brought before him and she wouldn’t do it!’

When the women hear it, they’ll start treating their husbands with contempt.

The day the wives of the Persian and Mede officials get wind of the queen’s insolence, they’ll be out of control.

Is that what we want, a country of angry women who don’t know their place?

“So, if the king agrees, let him pronounce a royal ruling and have it recorded in the laws of the Persians and Medes so that it cannot be revoked, that Vashti is permanently banned from King Xerxes’ presence.

And then let the king give her royal position to a woman who knows her place.

When the king’s ruling becomes public knowledge throughout the kingdom, extensive as it is, every woman, regardless of her social position, will show proper respect to her husband.”

The king and the princes liked this.

The king did what Memucan proposed.

He sent bulletins to every part of the kingdom, to each province in its own script, to each people in their own language: “Every man is master of his own house; whatever he says, goes.”

Later, when King Xerxes’ anger had cooled and he was having second thoughts about what Vashti had done and what he had ordered against her, the king’s young attendants stepped in and got the ball rolling: “Let’s begin a search for beautiful young virgins for the king.

Let the king appoint officials in every province of his kingdom to bring every beautiful young virgin to the palace.

Hegai, the king’s eunuch who oversees the women; he will put them through their beauty treatments.

Then let the girl who best pleases the king be made queen in place of Vashti.”

The king liked this advice and took it.

Now there was a Jew who lived in the palace complex in Susa.

His name was Mordecai.

His ancestors had been taken from Jerusalem with the exiles and carried off into exile.

Mordecai had reared his cousin Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther, since she had no father or mother.

The girl had a good figure and a beautiful face.

After her parents died, Mordecai had adopted her.

When the king’s order had been publicly posted, many young girls were brought to the palace complex of Susa and given over to Hegai who was overseer of the women.

Esther was among them.

Hegai liked Esther and took a special interest in her.

Right off he started her beauty treatments, ordered special food, assigned her seven personal maids from the palace, and put her and her maids in the best rooms in the harem.

Esther didn’t say anything about her family and racial background because Mordecai had told her not to.

Every day Mordecai strolled beside the court of the harem to find out how Esther was and get news of what she was doing.

Each girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes after she had completed the twelve months of prescribed beauty treatments.

When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, had recommended.

Esther, just as she was, won the admiration of everyone who saw her.

She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace.

The king fell in love with Esther far more than with any of his other women—he was totally smitten by her.

He placed a royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.

Then the king gave a great banquet for all his nobles and officials—“Esther’s Banquet.”

He proclaimed a holiday for all the provinces and handed out gifts with royal generosity.

A Game of Chance

On one of the occasions when the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate.

All this time, Esther had kept her family background and race a secret as Mordecai had ordered; Esther still did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was being raised by him.

On this day, with Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate, two of the eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had it in for the king and were making plans to kill King Xerxes.

But Mordecai learned of the plot and told Queen Esther, who then told King Xerxes, giving credit to Mordecai.

When the thing was investigated and confirmed as true, the two men were hanged on a gallows.

This was all written down in a logbook kept for the king’s use.

Some time later, King Xerxes promoted Haman the Agagite, making him the highest-ranking official in the government.

All the king’s servants at the King’s Gate used to honor him by bowing down and kneeling before Haman—that’s what the king had commanded.

Except Mordecai.

Mordecai wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t bow down and kneel.

The king’s servants at the King’s Gate asked Mordecai about it: “Why do you cross the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him about this but he wouldn’t listen, so they went to Haman to see whether something shouldn’t be done about it.

Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.

When Haman saw for himself that Mordecai didn’t bow down and kneel before him, he was outraged.

Meanwhile, having learned that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman hated to waste his fury on just one Jew; he looked for a way to eliminate not just Mordecai but all Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

In the first month, of the twelfth year of Xerxes, the pur—that is, the lot—was cast under Haman’s charge to determine the propitious day and month.

The lot turned up the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.