Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #7

Haman Gets Indigestion

Read: Esther 5:9-14

“All this does me no good so long as I see the Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” (v. 13, NRSV)

Some people are just impossible to please. Haman has just enjoyed a private dinner party with the royals and he has an invitation to a second. Yet, on his way home from the palace he encounters Mordecai, who “neither rose nor trembled before him” (v. 9).

When Haman complains to his fan club, they are ready with a helpful—if wicked—suggestion. “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made,” they suggest. “And in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet in good spirits.” Yes indeed, there’s nothing like executing one’s enemy to whet one’s appetite…. (!)

Just when we think we’ve taken the measure of Haman’s megalomania, he surpasses himself. The gallows was to be as tall as a modern six story building. What’s more, Mordecai was already under a death sentence. All Haman had to do was wait.

But wickedness can’t wait. It is impatient and insatiable and wildly out of proportion. What a contrast Haman makes to Esther who not only waits for just the right moment, but willingly humbles herself, risking all for others.

Prayer: Help us to pattern ourselves after the one who “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8, NRSV).

Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #6

Dinner for Three

Read: Esther 5:1-8

Let the king and Haman come today to a banquet that I have prepared…. (v. 4,  NRSV)

From this time forward, Esther is every inch a queen. Fortified only by her three day fast, she dons her “royal robes” and enters the throne room uninvited. We should not downplay the danger. It is a little bit like venturing into a snake pit doing one’s best imitation of a snake.

The relief we feel when Ahasuerus extends the golden scepter is significant—but temporary. Now we brace ourselves to see what will happen when she pleads for the lives of her people.

When Ahasuerus offers her a blank check in the form of half is kingdom, we are practically giddy. Ask him! we urge her. Plead for you people now while he’s in a generous mood!

We are puzzled, then, when we read Esther’s response in verse four. Banquet? we ask. Why are you wasting an opportunity like this on a dinner invitation? Our incredulity is even greater when the first invitation is followed by a second!

The story is silent about Esther’s motives here. Perhaps she is banking on the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach. Perhaps she is simply trying to work up her nerve. Either way, God uses her hesitation to work all things “together for good” (Romans 8:28, NRSV).

Prayer: Work through us, gracious God, to accomplish your will in the world.

Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #5

God Save the Queen

Read: Esther 4

Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this.  (v. 14, NRSV)

News of the death edict seems to have spread everywhere except inside the palace. Esther is oblivious of it when she sends to see why Mordecai is sitting outside the palace gates in sackcloth and ashes.

Mordecai does not mince words. The message he sends must have electrified Esther. Not only are her people condemned to die, but Mordecai seems to want her to accelerate her own death sentence by sending her to the king uninvited.

Mordecai’s response to her request for clarification has been quoted for more than two millennia. “Why knows?” he hints in verse fourteen. “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this.”

If Esther had known the hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” she would surely have sung it then. And all of us could take heart from William Cowper’s wonderful words:

O fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head.

William Cowper, 1774

The chapter closes with Esther rising to the dangerous occasion to which God has called her. Wisely, she prepares with prayer.

Prayer: Give us courage, O God, in such a time as this to hear your call clearly and to act according to your will.

Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #4

Haman’s Way with Words

Read: Esther 3:7-15

If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction…. (v. 9, NRSV)

Whoever coined the proverb “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” had never met Haman. Haman’s words are designed to hurt, and to hurt badly. By the end of this chapter, he succeeds in issuing an edict to “destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day….” (v. 13).

The only thing more astonishing than the scope of Haman’s words is their sinister quality. Hidden behind the Hebrew of his immodest proposal is a deceptive word play. The Hebrew word for “destroy” sounds almost exactly like the word for “enslave.” So it’s entirely possible that Ahasuerus thought he was agreeing to enslave these allegedly disloyal subjects. (See Esther’s argument in 7:4.) All ambiguity disappears, however, in the written version of the edict (3:14).

The chapter closes with Haman and King Ahasuerus sitting down for a celebratory drink. Outside the palace, panic spreads like wildfire.

For believers of every age, there are times when the wicked seem to be winning. Yet, we are not called people of faith for nothing. In Esther’s story and in ours, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrew 11:1).

Prayer: Savior, help us to have faith even when evil seems to be winning.

Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #3

Unjust Deserts

Read: Esther 2:19-3:6

 [Haman] thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone…. (Esther 3:6, NRSV)

It must have irked Mordecai to be passed over for promotion. After all, he had just saved the king from two assassins. And yet, when chapter three begins we are told that “after these things” someone named Haman is promoted. This is not what we as readers expect—and it’s probably not what Mordecai expected either!

Was it resentment that made Mordecai refuse to bow down? Perhaps. Or maybe it was Haman’s family tree that stiffened Mordecai’s spine. Haman was, after all, an “Agagite,” that is, a descendent of the Canaanite king, Agag, who years before had cost Saul the kingship (see 1 Samuel 15). But could “bad blood” have been enough to make Mordecai disobey a direct order from the king?

Frustrating as it is for modern readers, the Bible doesn’t tell us the reason for Mordecai’s refusal. Maybe that’s because the Bible is more interested in the effect than the cause. Whatever Mordecai’s motivation, his act sparks a hate so disproportionate in Haman that we have only one word for it: genocide. There is nothing reasonable about that reality. It stalks our world still. Perhaps the real question is not “Why does this happen?” but “What are we going to do to end it?”

Prayer: Forgive us, Lord, for turning our eyes from victims of hate. Help us to find ways to help them.

Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #2

The Morning After

Read: Esther 2:1-18

Let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. (v. 4, NRSV)

When Ahasuerus wakes up after his 187-day drinking bash, he discovers that he has banished Queen Vashti. His courtiers comfort him by suggesting a contest for a new queen.

As we read the story of how the young Jewish girl, Esther, gets caught in the king’s dragnet, we would do well to remember that this is not like a modern day beauty pageant. The “Miss Persia” contestants are not volunteers and there are no scholarships or parting gifts. Even the winner gets only the dubious honor of marrying King Ahasuerus. For all of his power and majesty, this king is not the brightest light in the harbor. And for a Jewish girl, the prospect of marrying a heathen king could not have been very appealing.

Remember, too, that Esther is triply vulnerable: she is an exile, a woman, and an orphan. When she is conscripted to compete for Miss Persia, it’s no wonder her guardian and cousin, Mordecai, spends his days pacing with worry at the gates of the harem.

When Esther “wins” we’re not sure whether to laugh or cry. She may have wondered herself. And she must surely have wondered why God had put her in this odd position.

Prayer: Guide us, O God, when we wonder what your plans are for us. Help us to trust you and to follow where you lead.

Introduction:

This 12-part series takes a new look at an old story and finds fresh words of courage, faith, and challenge for today’s Church. It is based on Carol Bechtel’s commentary on Esther in the Interpretation series (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Study #1

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?

Read: Esther 1

[King Ahasuerus] displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred eighty days in all. (v. 4 NRSV)

The first chapter of Esther introduces us to the Persian emperor, Ahasuerus. His name literally means “high and mighty” and he is out to impress his subjects. Not content with the 180-day bash he throws for the entire Persian army, he tops it off with a lavish, 7-day drinking party at the palace. As the grand finale, he orders Queen Vashti to parade her beauty before his well-oiled guests. Is it any wonder she refuses?

As we read the Bible’s account of this ancient ego-fest, we would do well to ask ourselves, “What are we reading here?” If we assume that this is an ancient episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” we may well be impressed. But what if the biblical author wants us to form another impression, namely, of a flawed ruler who thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think (Romans 12:3)?

Either way, thinks don’t work out so well for Ahasuerus. He may control an empire that stretches from India to Ethiopia, but at the end of the day, he can’t control his own wife.

Prayer: Defender of the poor and guardian of the weak, help me to order my life according to the values of your kingdom