Alright, so lesson two is entitled to Jews face eminent genocide. And we're going to be tackling chapters one through four and eleven through fourteen. Remember, as I discussed in the introductory lesson, last lesson, that these chapters and verses are mixed all over the place because you have the standard Hebrew text that is amplified by the longer Greek text. So if you're reading the revised standard version like I am, the Greek text is all in italics.
And so we're beginning really with chapter eleven verse two because to make it more confusing, chapter eleven verse one is the final verse of the entire book. So you got to stand your toes. It's an interesting book. But anytime you see it in italics, you know that that is the Greek edition of the text, the Greek editions from the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
And then if it's in standard type text, then you know it from the Hebrew. So anyway, we talked about all of that in the last lesson, but just to kind of give you a refresher on that point. So we're going to be looking at chapters really eleven and twelve to begin with. I call that the prologue.
In fact, it is a prologue. Many people call that it's the prologue. And it's really setting the stage for this entire book. And it's really, really crucial actually.
You see how in God's providence that the church has proclaimed that the Greek Septuagint version, the longer version of Esther is inspired. And you see so many amazing, beautiful details about what we're going to see immediately. The inclusio that the book ends and begins the same way. But also all these beautiful prayers and petitions to God, it's just some really amazing stuff.
So we've got to have the full text of the inspired scripture as the churches to find it. So let's begin then with chapter eleven verse two, the first verse. This is the prologue. We're going to be introduced to this character named Mordecai.
All right, so let's go. Verse two. In the second year of the reign of Artic Xerxes is the great. On the first day of Nisan, that's not to be confused with the month of Honda or Toyota or Shetty.
Nisan. Mordecai, the son of Dyer, the son of Chame, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin had a dream. He was a Jew dwelling in the city of Sousa, a great man serving in the court of the king. He was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had brought from Jerusalem with Cechania, king of Judah.
And this was his dream. We'll just stop right there. Okay. So here's a few little things about Mordecai.
You can find this in your Catholic Bible dictionary, different points on him. First about his name, which is really interesting. He is named after the chief deity and the Babylonian pantheon named Marduk as the scholars will argue. So interesting that he has this name, that's a Persian name.
It's a pagan name after a pagan divinity that's really, really strange. And perhaps he has given this non-Jewish name in the inter-government service. There's a quote here says in the case of Daniel and his friends. So this happens a lot where you go back to Daniel chapter one.
Daniel and his pals, they have their Jewish names. And then when they're in Persian service in the Persian court, they're given a Nikki call a Nikki name if you want to our second name. This happened also in the Greco-Roman world. You have a couple of examples in the New Testament with individuals who have a Jewish name as well as a non-Jewish or a Gentile name like Levi and Matthew or Saul and Paul, things like that.
So what's interesting about Mordecai is he has this Persian name named after a Babylonian god. But we're not told if he has a Jewish name or not. He probably did. I mean, that's a very safe assumption there.
But as he served in the court of the king, he was probably given this name. Okay. Now he is the older cousin. He's not the uncle.
He is the older cousin and the father figure of Esther, who of course is the main figure of this book. We're going to talk a lot about Esther in chapter two. We mentioned this also in the last lesson. Esther is a lot of this debate about the origin of her name.
But she might be named after the goddess Ishtar. So that's interesting how Mordecai is named after Marduk, Esther named after Ishtar. But she has a Hebrew name as we're going to see in chapter two versus five and following. She's named Khadasah, which means Myrtle flower, which is really beautiful.
She's this young, beautiful, virgin Jewish girl. And she's like, this is like this beautiful flower. And I like that connection a lot. But while Mordecai does not have a Jewish name mentioned, Esther does.
So Khadasah as we'll see in chapter two is her name. All right. Now Mordecai served in the court of the king. He has multiple names in this book.
Hazzaras is often called or Xerxes the first. Xerxes the first is a very important Persian king. You find him described a lot in the ancient Greek writer Herodotus, who is the father of history. Xerxes the first, but he's also called here in the Greek text as we just read in the very first verse.
Art Xerxes, who's not to be confused with later kings by that name. In your footnote here, I've got a little description, a quote from your commentary about these names and Hazzaras, Xerxes, is the same person. So just be aware that if I'm teaching this or we're reading a particular section, if I say Hazzaras or Xerxes or art Xerxes, it's the same person in this particular story. There's only one king in the story.
And he reigns from the capital of Susa. Just like Nehemiah, as a matter of fact, if you read the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah is serving the king in the capital of Susa. And remember, as I share the timeline, the chronology, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, they're all really, really close together. In fact, I believe it's, I said to you that Esther is in between something like chapter 6 and 7 of the book of Esther.
So that's really, really interesting. It's the same time period, very, very close together. Now, there's a point here about when he was taken captive. That connects us with the captivity story of how Nebuch and Esau remember came in really three waves and destroyed, captured the city of Jerusalem and destroyed ultimately, burning down the temple.
But in one of these waves, it says here in the text that Mordecai was one of the captives that Nebuch and Esau brought out of Jerusalem with Jeccaniah. That would be in the year 597. Now, if the text, and this is the same thing as going to be repeated actually in chapter 2 versus 5 and following. But if the text is saying that Mordecai himself was brought out of Jerusalem in 597, even if he was a newborn, that would still place him to be over 100 years old, because Xerxes reign from 485 to 465, about 20 years right there.
So if you do the timeline from 597 and tick it all the way down to the beginning of his reign, 485, that would never take 110 years old, more than that because it's all happened in the middle of Xerxes reign if you're following me. So as the commentaries will point out, the Hebrew pronouns is probably referring to Mordecai's ancestor that was brought out of the land of Babylon. So Mordecai himself was probably born in captivity in exile, but his ancestors are the tribe of Benjamin. That's going to be important later on, so don't blink.
But he's the tribe of Benjamin. His ancestor was brought out of Jerusalem into captivity. So that will touch upon this briefly in chapter 2 as well. Alright, so that introduces Mordecai, his relationship, well actually his relationship with Esther is going to be in chapter 2, but I'm just telling you right now, he is the older cousin and father figure of Esther.
We'll get there soon enough. Well now he has this dream, this prophetic dream, and it's very apocalyptic. And by apocalyptic it's just a literary genre where you've got these fantastical figures and imagery and language going on, like the sun, the moon, the stars will fall out of the sky, this apocalyptic language describing the end of an empire or the end of an age. You've got these other elements of apocalyptic genres or visions, like the book of Revelation is apocalyptic, it's built upon the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, and you've got all these visions and these figures like the Lamb or you've got this, the angels describing in particular unique way of unique is a good word for it.
Well that's what's going on here with Mordecai's dream, it's apocalyptic, which is going to be important typologically as we go through the story because it's going to teach us something about the end of time, as I'm going to argue. Alright, well let's read it here without any further ado, chapter 11 verse 5, this is his dream. Behold, noise and confusion, thunder's an earthquake, tumult upon the earth, and behold, two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight and they roared terribly, and after roaring, every nation prepared for war to fight against the nation of the righteous, and behold, the day of darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult upon the earth, and the whole righteous nation was troubled, they feared the evil that threatened them, and they were ready to perish. Then they cried to God and from their cry, as though from a tiny spring there came a great river with abundant water, light came and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honor.
Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke, he had it on his mind and saw all day to understand it in every detail. Pretty interesting dream, right? These two dragons fighting and roaring against each other, and the righteous nation fighting with the other nations, and there's darkness and gloom, but then there's light and water flowing and all this stuff, it's really, really amazing. Okay, so this dream forms what we call a literary inclusio in the full inspired text, which is the Hebrew text and the Greek text is the full inspired text.
The Hebrew text does not have the Greek editions, remember, okay? So you got to be careful of what book you're reading, but the full text has the book beginning with this dream and the whole book ends with the interpretation of the dream, which is really interesting. So the entire story is framed off, it's called an inclusio, like bookend versus or bookend sections, right? In this case, it's bookend dreams that's going to help us to understand it's going to illuminate the meaning of the actual book itself, right?
So it's an inclusio. All right, now here's a little quote for you. It says in a veiled way Mordecai's dream tells us in advance what the whole book is about, and yet leaves us wondering what it all means. Our uncertainty will disappear gradually and only in the end when the dream is interpreted, will everything become clear from your name of our Bible.
And that's a really great way of putting this. Okay, so if you've never read Esther before, you're like, well, what does this mean? And he's, we're left reading about how he's trying to understand it. He doesn't get it all.
But as you read the story, you understand like who are these dragons and who's the righteous people and all the other nations and the tiny stream and all this stuff. Now, I mean, there's a spoiler that's about to happen right now. I imagine most people have read Esther, and we're going to go through this, but maybe I shouldn't give you the spoiler, but I guess I'm going to go into it. It's in my nose.
I guess I better. All right, so who are these people? Who are these figures, excuse me, where these figures? Well, the two dragons that are fighting against each other and roaring against each other symbolize the two main characters here, at least the male characters, Mordecai, who is our hero in Haman, who is the antagonist, he's the villain.
Okay, then the whole righteous nation, that's going to be Israel, of course, it doesn't take a leap to figure that out. The righteous nation of God is Israel, and then every other nation are the Gentiles. But that tiny stream that flows into a great river is Esther. And that's really, really beautiful, because it's going to see she's humble and she's small and she's devout and faithful, and yet God is going to use her in this great way.
She's going to become by becoming queen, this great powerful river. Now, I did include here in your notes a very brief little quote. It says that Esther by her tears extinguished the rising flame. And I really like that a lot.
That's from Haidok. It's like this little, Creek, right? This little tiny spring is like her tears where she prays and intercedes for her people that's going to extinguish the rising flame. Well, what would that rising flame be?
I'm speculating here from the quote, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that the rising flame would perhaps be the fire that pours forth out of the villain's mouth, that dragon's mouth, which is Haman. So I just really like that little quote I wanted to share with you, because it's like her tears, very poetic, right? It's very beautiful. It's her tears form the beginning of that little spring, a little creek, whatever you want to call it, that will extinguish this great flame of the dragon's fire.
I really like that a lot. So it's a powerful dream. And honestly, there are a lot of figures in the Old Testament also had dreams while in exile. He had Joseph, for example, going back to Genesis, his dreams while in Egypt, before Egypt and then during Egypt interpreting Pharaoh's dreams.
So streams are all about Joseph's story from beginning to end. And then Daniel himself had dreams and visions. Ezekiel 2, I could add, is a prophet who was an exile hall of them to captivity in Babylon. So his visions and dreams.
So this is really just par for the course when it comes to God communicating to his people and revealing his plans and his province to people through the medium of dreams. And this is God's plan. Like Emoteichai says right here in verse 12, he saw in this dream what God had determined to do that's worth underlining for you. You should underline that in your Bible.
What God had determined to do this is God's plan. This is God's will. He's trying to understand it because it's being revealed to him in veiled language. And this imagery that he is seeing in his dream is going to be very important for understanding the details of what happens.
We're going to see it in the story. But these events are going to take place. And this touched upon the providence theme that I shared with you in the last lesson. One of the great themes of this book is God's providence.
Honestly, it's the great theme of the entire Bible, right? God controls everything. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient.
He's all benevolence. He loves his people. He will bring all, as Paul says, good to all those who love him. Nothing that happens doesn't happen without his permission.
And so he is in control. He is in charge. And he will bring great good out of all of this for the sake of his people. And his name will be glorified.
So keep that providence theme in mind. It will come really at the end of this lesson. We'll get to chapter four. We're going to see that touch up.
Come to the forefront again. All right, cool. All right. So there's Mordecai.
That's his dream. Now really briefly here in a very short chapter, chapter 12, verses one through six. There is this little brief story that I think serves as a narrative summary of the following events because it's some repetition in chapter two. But I think my personal opinion on this is that here's we're going to read Mordecai reveals a plot against Kingserxes.
It's going to be repeated later. This is like a preamble, right? It's an introductory narrative summary that's going to be unpacked in more detail as we read further on, right? So the Hebrew text comes to the translator and then the translator translates it.
And if it's him or someone else, they give these other details, whether they have sources themselves that they're adding onto it or they're adding themselves, they're basically serving as a preamble if that makes sense, right? Just like a little hint of things to come. Well, let's read it here. So that's chapter 12, verse one.
Mordecai took his rest in the courtyard with Gabbatha and Therah, two eunuchs of the King who kept watching the courtyard. He overheard their conversation and inquired into their purposes and learned that they were preparing to lay hands upon Arzerxes the king and he informed the king concerning them. And the king examined the two eunuchs and when they confessed they were led to execution and the king made a permanent record of these things and Mordecai wrote an account of them. And the king ordered Mordecai to serve in the court and rewarded him for these things.
But Haman, the son of Hamadatha, a bogean in great honor with the king, he sought to injure Mordecai and his people because of, and that's worth underlining, that's a very important detail. He wanted to injure Mordecai and the Jewish people because of these two eunuchs. All right, so the story is pretty straight forward, right? Mordecai discovers the two eunuchs plotting against the king.
He tells the king the king has them executed. He's promoted and his deeds are written down but this antagonist, this villain, Haman, wants revenge, not just against Mordecai but against his entire people because of the two eunuchs. So what this is going to be unpacked in other details as we move forward here. But this tells us something important about Haman.
We'll learn more about him in a second. But he must be involved in the plot of the two eunuchs. So that's one of the reasons why he wants revenge against Mordecai. There are other reasons as well.
But he wants revenge because it seems pretty clear if you read between the lines that he is behind the plot against the king. It's cut wide because he might want to throw himself, right? He might want to throw himself. He's plotting a coup, coup d'etat and he wants to become king.
That will explain a lot of what is going to be unpacked as we go on here with the antagonism, with the tension, with the war really between Mordecai and Haman. And why they're fighting against each other. Part of the reason for that is because Haman wants to be king and he's probably using those two eunuchs as his minions to accomplish his plan. All right, so keep that in mind.
And now let's get to chapter one which is the Hebrew text. This is the beginning of the Bible or rather the beginning of the book and the Bible that all the Protestants and Jews will have in their Bibles as well. Okay, so here is the story of how King Hazaris, aka Xerxes the first, is going to depose Queen Vashti. He had multiple queens.
Don't get this wrong. These ancient kings had multiple queens, multiple concubines. But Queen Vashti was like the main one. In fact, Vashti is Persian for the desired one or the best one.
That's a very appropriate name because she was the most beautiful, desirable queen in his retinue. Okay? All right, well, this is the story of how she's deposed and demoted and an ester is going to become the new queen. And keep in mind, this entire time is always God's providence that's working in the background.
And also, if you want, I'm not going to point this out in every instance, but as you read really carefully, notice how many times the number seven is mentioned. Seven this and seven that I'm going to start talking about a couple of banquets. There's actually seven total banquets in the story of Esther, seven, seven everywhere, seven number of the covenant. So broadly speaking, I mean, I'm unaware of any particular specific connections here.
But broadly speaking, God is faithful to his covenant for his people. He will deliver his people from his Persian threat and his imminent genocide. So God, so the number seven is repeated multiple times, basically telling us the reader that God is directing all of these events for the sake of his fidelity towards his covenant people. That's how I would read that and interpret that.
Okay. All right. So let's dive in here. Chapter one, what happens with Queen Vashti?
Hey, this is Dr. Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want.
So thank you so much. God bless you and keep setting your Bible.