Welcome to our final lesson on the Book of Esther, as always as beginning prayer, the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen. And the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Well now this third and final lesson on the Book of Esther, we entirely remember Esther, the intercessory queen, we're going to actually see that take place in this third lesson when Esther really saves the day. She intercedes her the Jews and she saves the Jews. So it's a fantastic story. There's all kinds of great irony and reversals and the timing is perfect.
It's just that the key to good comedy is of course timing, right? So there's a lot of good comedy in here. It's just a fantastic sequence of chapters. And so we're going to look at chapters five through 10 in the Hebrew text and also 15 and 16 in the Greek version, the Septuagint version, which is of course inspired as I argued in lesson one, introducing this book.
We left off in chapter 14. Remember in your Bible, if you have a revised version that's all in italics, we left off in chapter 14 where Mordecai petitions Esther to petition the king. Everyone is in deep. They're really, really in trouble.
The king has issued an edict unknowingly because it's been done by Haman's hand to destroy Mordecai and really all the Jews is what he wants to do. And we talked about that in the lesson, what would be motivating Haman. You go back and review that. There's of course, Haman looking for some divine and divine accolades of some kind, which Mordecai refuses to give him.
I think that's true. But also you go back in history, Mordecai really descends from King Saul's house and Haman descends from King Agag of the Amalekites. And so that ancient tinge, the ancient rivalry is now taking place between these two men. All right.
So chapter 14 was Esther listening to Mordecai saying, all right, I will go before the king, even though if someone goes before the king, unsummon, they're going to die. That's the law. I'm going to risk it because if I don't do anything, then all the Jews are going to die. And if I try something and I die, well, then I'm going to die anyway.
So I might as well just, you know, trust God, pray and approach the king. And that's what she does. So for three days, she prays, she fasts, she puts on sackcloth and ashes. Oh, by the way, she also puts on dung.
Don't forget that part. She doubles down on the humility there. It's pretty gross, but she's all in on begging the Lord for help. And that's what we're going to pick up right now in chapter 15 verse 1.
Let's just read the first few verses. 15 1 says, on the third day, when she entered, when she ended her prayer, she took off the garments in which she had worshipped and clothed herself and splendid attire, then majestically adorned after invoking the aid of the all-seeing God and Savior. I love that line right there. I have that highlighted for sure my Bible, the all-seeing God and Savior.
That's beautiful. She took her two maids and went with her. Okay. And it goes down to verse 6.
It says, when she had gone through all the doors, she stood before the king. He was seated on his royal throne, clothed in the full array of his majesty, all covered with gold and precious stones. And he was most terrifying. All right, so stop right there.
So it's been three days. I think there's some resurrection imagery right there. I mean, you can't push the envelope too much on a lot of the stuff, but I mean, three is a significant number. It's a number of perfectionist own way, but usually in terms of the resurrection, right?
And that makes sense because if you think about it, for three days Esther is completely dejected, humiliated, self-humiliated, right? Self-deprecation there. She's praying to God, fasting, not drinking food or water, perhaps not even water. And now on the third day, she rises up from that state to put on her splendid apparel and to go before the king.
So I think that there's some clear resurrection imagery there for sure. So she's beautified herself to petition the king very, very bravely. This is not a small task. We talked about this before.
If you approach the king, you are going to be killed. If you approach when he hasn't called you, right, you're going to be killed. So she is so brave in all of this and we're going to see this take place here in just a second. But when she approaches the king, there's a little bit of a reverse solar and antithesis going on here.
I have a quote for you from your Catholic study Bible. It says Esther's bold action points to an antithetical parallel in the book, whereas Vashti, Queen Vashti, incurred the king's wrath by refusing to appear before him when summoned. And that's back in chapter one verse 12. Esther risks a far worse fate by approaching the throne on summoned.
In quote, right? So that's a really interesting contrast between Vashti and Esther here, right? And if you think about it a little bit more kind of press dig deeper a little bit, it's interesting because really Vashti doesn't come into the presence of the king and she's punished, but Esther does come into the presence of the king on summon and she's blessed, right? She is treated very, very well as we're going to see in the story.
So it's a really great contrast and a reversal that we're going to see. I mentioned this in the key themes of lesson number one. You have all these reversals that really kind of point to the magnificat and Hannah's song as well. Remember that the pride will be brought down.
The lowly will be exalted. The hungry will go away. We'll be fed and those that are full will go away, empty and so on and so forth. We see that in this story.
Queen Vashti is brought down in her place. Esther rises up. We're going to see as well as I introduce in the first lesson Mordecai rises up after Haman is brought down and in the same thing, the Jews are set for destruction and yet they rise up and they vindicate themselves. So this is the first instance, one of them actually instances where Esther is contrasted with Queen Vashti in a very interesting way.
I love it. All right. So what happens here is in verse seven, so he was most terrifying. He was splendid.
He was magnificent. In verse seven, it says he lifts up his face, flushed with splendor. He looked at her in fierce anger and the queen faltered and turned pale and faint and collapsed upon the head of the maid who went before her. So she completely passes out poor thing in terror and infrites.
Exactly what she was afraid of is she just walked into his presence. He would be super angry about it and then she would be killed. Right. That's it.
And so she passes out. And by the way, she hasn't been eating or possibly not even drinking for the past three days. So she's even weaker than she normally would have been. So she faints.
But yet we see this theme of providence here because God changes the spirit of the king. God changes his heart in verse eight. So God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness and in alarm, he sprang from his throne and took her in his arms until she came to herself. And he comforted her with soothing words and said, what is Esther?
I am your brother. Not literally, obviously. That's a term of endearment of affection of kinship, right? I am your brother.
Take courage. You shall not die for our law applies only to the people. Come near. So this is really beautiful.
And to his credit, the book of Esther depicts Xerxes as a pretty good king, honestly, like Cyrus. I'll mention Cyrus actually here in just a little bit. But Cyrus was a great king. In fact, Cyrus is called the Lord's anointed one, the Lord's a messiah in Isaiah chapter 45.
Now that I think about it. So these Persian kings, I mean, they're depicted pretty well by and large. They're not perfect, but he is gentle and he's affectionate towards her. He's really loving it towards her.
And that's great. So the fact though, that it's God in his grace changes his heart. There's always this mystery. I'll mention this right now.
It goes back to Pharaoh and honestly goes back to the garden of Eden. But then there's Pharaoh's hardened heart and so many other places in scripture where you've got this mystery between God's will and our will. God will obtain what he sets forth and his providence will accomplish what he desires and wills, but never in violence to our own free will. And the theologians love to debate that how that exactly works at Nazium.
But in any case, God changes his heart and he freely cooperates with that and has mercy and compassion and love and affection for his queen. So here's a great quote for you again from Catholic study Bible that says that God is in control of the situation, guiding the course of events to fulfill his purposes. A theology of divine providence is implicit in the Hebrew version of Esther, but made explicit in the Greek version. And I'm going to mention that a couple more times or at least one more time as we go through this lesson as I've said before in the past.
You really the Hebrew version chapters one through ten Protestants and Hebrews have in their Bibles, but the full inspired text includes the Greek version. It includes those chapters 11 through 16 in the proper places that revised into version puts it. You get the full sense of what God is doing because remember I think introduced this in chapter, in lesson one. Many people will say in the Hebrew and Protestant Bibles of Esther, the Hebrew text, oh God isn't mentioned and that's really complicated, really difficult.
Why isn't God mentioned? You know, he might be implicitly mentioned in one or two spots. You know like if Esther goes and prays well clearly she's praying to God for example. But the Greek text makes all of that so much more beautiful, so much more vivid and clear that God is in control of everything.
As we're going to see here in just a second chapter six through the hinge of the book, God is in control. So that theme of providence, no matter how dire the situation is, no matter if everything looks absolutely lost, God is in control. So Esther cooperates with grace in her own right, bravely approaches the king, and God moves his heart to have compassion on her queen. That's the story.
That's lovely. And really I shared with you a paragraph here from the Catechus in paragraph 269 on that point. There's a line here I really like. This is nothing is impossible with God.
By the way, that's an echo of Gabriel's words to Mary regarding Elizabeth who conceived in her old age. Nothing will be impossible to God. Another connection with Sarah who is old as well. In any case, moving on, there's too many tangents here.
Nothing is impossible with God who disposes his works according to his will. He is the Lord of the universe whose order he established and which remains holy subject to him and at his disposal. I love that. He is the Lord of the universe whose order he established and which remains holy subject to him and his disposal.
He is the master of history governing hearts and events and keeping with his will. I like that quote, right? That's the end of the quote. He governs hearts just like he moved the spirit of the heart of the king to accomplish his will to bless and to protect the Jews here in Esther story.
He does that all the time. I already mentioned briefly a moment ago, Cyrus. Same thing. Cyrus was the first of the Persian kings.
He comes to the throne and he allows the Jews to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and to rebuild the city. Isaiah 45, as I mentioned, in the early 45 mentions how Cyrus is the Lord's anointed one. That's Messianic language. That's the vidic language.
This Persian king is God's anointed one. That's absolutely mind blowing right there. So God does this. Cyrus is an example of this and here to think of Hazarus or AKA Xerxes.
So in any case, he's kind of has moved on here with the story. Verse 11, he raised the gold in scepter and touched it to her neck and embraced her and said, speak to me. And she said, I saw you, my Lord. This is really magnificent description of the king so much so that you could very carefully kind of understand God the Father to be typified in King Ahazarus or King Xerxes.
Remember, there's always similarities and dissimilarities with typology with parallels with an analogical reading of scripture. But still, nevertheless, look at this description. She says to him, I saw you, my Lord, like an angel of God, and my heart was shaking with fear at your glory, for you are wonderful, my Lord, and your countenance is full of grace. That's a lovely description here.
All right. So in any case, she was speaking, she fainted again. She faints a second time, she just can't handle it. And it says in verse 16, the king was agitated.
He's not upset. He's not like, Oh my gosh, I'm just trying to have a conversation with you. You keep passing out, just stop passing out already. That's not mad.
He's agitated in a sense of trouble or worried for her. He just passed out twice in his arms or in his presence. He's really concerned like what? Remember, she's the favorite queen.
All right, she's the one that was picked to replace Queen Vashti. So he is genuinely and beautifully concerned for her welfare. That's what it means. So she comes to, and now we're back to the Hebrew text, we're chapter five verse three.
Remember, you got to be careful. And when I'm making references to chapter and verse, just be aware that it is inter spliced together, like it's this great tapestry of the Greek and the Hebrew text woman together. But now we're at the Hebrew text chapter five verse three. The king says, tell me what you want.
I'll give you anything, even half of my kingdom, which is a rhetorical way of saying I'll give you anything that you want. By the way, that was actually the story in the case of John the Baptist. Remember King Herod had said to the daughter of Herodias, I'm gonna give you half of my kingdom and then she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Kind of an interesting connection right there, but it's rhetorical.
It's a way of saying I'll give you whatever you want, you know, whatever reason, obviously. All right, so she, her request is maybe she's feeling weak. She just passed out twice. She hasn't eaten very much.
She's very afraid and intimidated. She says, it's coming to me, come with me to a banquet, a feast tonight, you and Haman. That's her request. You, the king and Haman, join me at a feast that very evening.
And of course he answers her request, or grants her request, I should say, and they go to a feast. But that evening, the king again, very patiently says, all right, my queen, what would you like? What's your petition? I'll give you half of my kingdom.
And then for whatever reason, she doesn't say what the request, she doesn't make her request to save the Jews at that point. I think that's providential because the next 24 hours in the story are very, very tight. It's like everything happens like clockwork and God's providence to ensure the fall of God's enemies and the same, it's dissipation of God's people. It's really amazing.
But in any case, that very, that night, the first feast, she says, well, actually come again tomorrow evening, and we're going to have another feast, just you and Haman. And so you got this pair of two feasts. And that's really interesting because as your Catholic Society Bible says that this pair of feasts here, the two feasts of Esther, and by the way, that would be number six and seven. I had told you before there are seven feasts in this book.
There's actually an eighth bonus feast, which is Breem. I'll get to that just a little bit. But this is six and seven that she has is a pair of feasts, the six and seven of the whole book. Well, those pair of feasts mirrors the two banquets hosted by Hasarus or A.K.
Azerxes at the beginning of the book and anticipate the two day feast of Purim Institute at the end of the book. So it's a really interesting doubling going on at the very beginning of the book. There's a doubling of the feasts, and then out here towards the end, or I really kind of run the middle of it, there's another doubling of feasts. And then at the very end, the feast of Purim is a two day doubling of feasts as well.
So that's really interesting. I'm in the greater context of scripture, like if you go back to say, for example, the story of Joseph, there's this line at the end of Genesis on how Joseph says to Pharaoh, you know, you've had a double dream, the doubling to the doubling means the thing is set by God, right? Because Joseph himself had two dreams, Pharaoh had two doubling of dreams. So the whole doubling motif is going on here is like God, Jesus says Amen, Amen, or truly, truly, barely, barely I say to you that whole doubling is God putting down his ante and then doubling down, right?
That's what's happening there. So we have in Esther's case this doubling of feasts the first night, she doesn't quite have the courage to request what she wants. She asks for a repeat feast the very, very next day. All right, meanwhile chapter five verse nine, Mordecai again does not give Haman any kind of recognition or honor.
Let's talk about doubling down. He's really upsetting Haman and to a certain extent, like digging his grave. In fact, it's a good segue because Haman is going to make his means of his murder here in just a second. Let's go to chapter five verse nine and see the story.
Haman went out that very day, right after the first feast of Esther, and that would be six if you're counting of all the feasts in the book that's six right there. Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gates, and by the way, notice this is the king's gate, a significant place, so just keep that in the back of your mind, the location. He sees Mordecai in the king's gate, he neither rose nor trembled before him. He was filled with wrath against Mordecai.
Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home and he sent and fetched his friends and his wives are Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him and how he had advanced him above the princes and the servants of the king. And then Haman said, even Queen Esther, let no one come into the king of the banquet she prepared, but myself. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. It all just does me no good, so long as I see Mordecai the Jews and get the kings gates.
And the wife is a rush and all his friends said, make a gallows 50 cubits high, and then in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai be hanged upon it, and then go merrily with the king to the dinner. This is great foreshadowing here, so tomorrow, hey, make your gallows, then go into the king and ask permission to kill him, then go to the feast, notice the sequence there, because all of that is going to be flipped on its head when Mordecai or sorry, when Haman tries to accomplish this. All right, so really quickly here, this whole note about making this gallows, which would be incredibly high, these cubes, like 75 feet high, I think that's what commentators say, I forget up top of my head, but it's absolutely really, really tall. Why?
Because you want to make everybody see it, that's the reason why. You know, if you do it low to the ground, crowds may not be able to see who the victim was, you make it high, and then everybody sees no matter where they are in the city, basically, right? So, but it's not really hanging like hanging from a noose, right? So your Catholic introduction to the Old Testament will clarify that most English versions speak of Haman constructing a gallows on which to hang Mordecai, the Hebrew speaks simply of a tree or a wooden thing being built from which to hang Mordecai.
This is more likely a huge pole or a pike on the top of which the victim was impaled. Persians practiced impalement rather than hanging with the noose in Western fashion. And this is exactly what happened by the way in the two eunuchs, in the beginning of our story, that we read about the two eunuchs who were seeking the life of King Xerxes and Mordecai intervened, and then they were executed or it says they were hanged while they were impaled on a pole. Now, I think this is really, really important because I'm going to touch upon this down the line here in this lesson.
I mentioned it in the key themes in the typology of lesson one. The whole fact that Haman builds a gallows were literally, as the commentary says, it's just a tree he builds a tree or a wooden thing upon which to hang or to impale Mordecai. That is all foreshadowing of the cross for sure. Remember, Mordecai is a type of Jesus Christ, and Haman is a type of Satan or the Antichrist, kind of a both and.
So the fact that our enemy wants to kill our hero by hanging him on a cross, that's 100% foreshadowing what happens with Jesus in the first century. And I have a lot more to say about that, so don't blink, okay? So here we go. We're now in the transition.
We're now in the hinge. We just finished at the end of chapter five, how his wife and his friends and make these gallows really, really tall and ask the king to kill Mordecai. Well, that very night, now things are changing because, again, the theme of God's providence is here. God is in control of everything.
Things are going to change. That very night, the king cannot sleep. It says in chapter six, verse one, that night the king cannot sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigfana and Tiresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had sought to lay hands upon King Lazarus.
And the king said, what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? And the king's servants who attended him said, nothing has been done for him. I will just stop there really, really quickly. Now, the fact that the king cannot sleep here in the night is not an accident.
That's 100% God's providence. Because as this quote that I've given to you here, a number of commentaries have pointed this out, the Greek version of Esther says explicitly that the Lord took sleep from the king. So this is all on purpose. So while Haman is putting forth his evil machinations in his plan to build the gallows and get permission to hang Mordecai, then everything he wants to do afterwards, then all that happens, remember, in the two feasts of Esther, that very night, God withhold sleep from the king so that he would be reading the chronicles, the royal chronicles.
And he would realize, oh my gosh, Mordecai saved my life, and we never really saved him. By the way, if you go back to the beginning of the book in chapter 12 verse 5, it says, remember, this is the prologue is what I call it, in chapter 12 verse 5, the king, Mordemor, kind of serve in the court and rewarded him for these things. So some people say this is a contradiction. Well, it's not a contradiction.
If you see chapter 12 as a general prologue for the story that's unpacked thereafter, but you could also say that the reward that is mentioned here at the beginning in chapter 12 must have been something really basic and not like a real public honoring recognition that the king wants to do. So he might be thinking of something completely different, instead of giving him some trinket of some kind. Now the king here really wants to reward him and honor him in a public way. So that's just kind of, if you ever caught that quote unquote, in parrot contradiction, there are no contradictions in scripture to be clear about that.
All right, so he is asking his, his, his units are, what have we done? Nothing has been done. Well, at that very moment, this is what I love. Like everything is just right in terms of the timing, like, bam, bam, bam, bam, and then these 48 hours, it's really amazing.
So nothing's been done for him. And then all of a sudden, Haman comes in to the courtyard to speak about having Mordecai killed, right? Have him and paled on the gallows. And so the king services at Haman and the king says, let him in.
Now, now at verse 6, chapter 6 verse 6, Haman came in and the king said to him, what shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? And Haman thought to himself, whom would the king delight to honor more than me? This is a great example, again, of the pride that goth before the fall. Haman is extremely prideful.
He has hubris going, like oozing out of everywhere, right? So the king wants to honor Mordecai. It's just fantastic irony. The king wants to honor Mordecai.
Haman comes in wanting to kill Mordecai. And the king says, how are we going to honor him? Haman thinks it's himself. And because he thinks it's himself, he gives some pretty lavish advice.
This is what you should, I'm going to read it for you. He says, this is what we should do. Verse 7, for the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse which the king has ridden on whose head a royal crown is set. When this is honoring the man with all the trappings of the king.
I think this is a little subtlety, by the way, because Haman thinks that the king wants to honor him and Haman wants to be king himself, which I think is evident in the text with the incident of the two units who wanted to take life of the king, I think this is a little bit, it shows his intentions. He wants to be king. And he thinks that the king is going to honor him, so he wants to dress like the king, look like the king, be treated like the king. All right, that's, I think that's a safe reading between the lions here and looking at the intentions of Haman.
All right, what goes on? Let robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes, and let him close the man whom the king delights to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback to the open square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. All right, so he does not hold back. This is pretty lavish praise, and it's public praise for this quote unquote person whom the king wants to honor.
However, you just have to use your imagination. You'll be amazed and have this depicted in like a dramatic movie of some kind, you know, but you can imagine Haman's face. When all of a sudden the king says, make haste, take the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew. Oh, I just love the richness of that.
He just came in to ask Mordecai to be killed, and in the same moment Mordecai is going to be honored, and that's what happens. So so Haman takes Mordecai publicly, dresses him up in all the kings attire and kings robes and on King's horse and all of this stuff, and publicly takes him through the city proclaiming thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And then Mordecai returned to the king's gates, and Haman hurried to his house ashamed. Now all this is is public.
So publicly, it's really interesting how Mordecai would not honor Haman publicly, but now Haman honors Mordecai publicly. Right, that's a total reversal right there for all to see. And then on top of that, Mordecai, just in the previous couple of chapters, had dressed in sackcloth and ashes and mourning and despair for the horror that was going to fall upon his people. But now that's reversed and he's not dressed in sackcloth and ashes.
Now he's dressed in the kings garb on the king's horse wearing the, you know, as he's crowned as well. So it's just a fantastic reversal. It's just rich and beautiful how everything flips on its head. Hey, this is Doc Nick.
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