When I was a little boy, my mom brought a board game home from work one day. She called us together and said: "Children, look what board game I've brought you." We rushed into the living room, my brothers and I, to see what it was. It was a bible game, designed according to the story of Esther. "So how do you play it?" we asked our mother, and she showed us a leaflet of instructions: You rolled a pair of dice and moved the number of spaces the dice prescribed, and every once in a while you got to pick a card, and do what the card required you to do, based on what event in the Esther story you dealt. So for example an event like Haman erecting gallows to hang Mordecai could cause you to lose a turn. An event like Esther's saying to Mordecai: "If I perish, I perish" could cause you to lose three turns, and so forth. It was such a beautiful game, and our mother used it to teach us a bit about the bible story of Esther. The game fascinated me so much that I decided to read the book myself. I don't recall exactly how old I was but, as fate would have it, later that year I came second in my class and was awarded a color book as present, and it was the children's version of the Book of Esther. It was a strong coincidence. I read the book with delight. By that point, I pretty much knew the story. It had become the first book of the bible I had read intimately. And soon enough, while still a kid, I decided to read the actual book in the bible. I read Esther. And it so fascinated me that, till date, it is my favorite book in all the bible. The Psalms is a close second.
The Book of Esther begins by showing off the wealth of a certain Xerxes. He has also been called in a variant version Ahasuerus. This Xerxes was extremely wealthy, as wealthy as a human being could possibly be. One day, he threw a seven-day party for all his officials. There was plenty of food and drink for all. As part of the celebrations he sent for his wife, Vashti, to come and show off her beauty to his officials, so they might praise his choice in women. Perhaps Vashti felt slighted by the king's invitation and she refused to honor it. The king was infuriated and asked his advisers how best to punish Vashti for what he described as her impudence. His advisers told him to divorce her. They said that Vashti's behavior was not simply an insult to the king, but also an example to other married women who, encouraged by her behavior, would begin to insult their own husbands. The king took their advice and did in fact divorce Vashti. But after he had done this, he grew lonely and depressed. His advisers therefore asked him to invite all the beautiful, unmarried virgin girls in the city and choose from among them who would replace Vashti. He agreed. And so all the beautiful young girls in the citadel were brought in to be possible replacements for Vashti.
One of the girls brought in was Esther. She was originally called Hadassah, but her guardian, her cousin Mordecai, wanted to hide her Jewish identity. He and his cousin Esther were Jews in diaspora, who lived in the heart of Xerses' empire. Esther was an orphan. This was how she came to live with her cousin for guardian. As she was taken off with the other girls to meet with the king, Mordecai instructed her not to tell what her ethnic heritage was. Esther and the other girls were cared for by one of the king's eunuchs. This eunuch took a special liking to Esther, and mentored her. When it was her turn to meet with the king, she took along what the eunuch prescribed, and she won the king's favor. He made her his queen in Vashti's place. The king subsequently threw a lavish party to celebrate Esther's coronation. Mordecai, her cousin and guardian, kept a lowly job at the palace gate. After all these things, the king elevated a certain Haman to the rank of prime minister. He was second only to the king himself. The king instructed that every one should bow down to Haman as a mark of respect. And so, as Haman walked along, everyone threw themselves face down to greet him; except of course Mordecai. People noticed soon enough that Mordecai never bowed down to greet Haman, and they reported the matter to the prime minister. Haman was infuriated and kept an eye out. He too noticed that Mordecai never bowed down to greet him like others did. And when he made inquiries, he realized it was because Mordecai was a Jew. He became full of hatred for all Jews.
Haman went to see the king. He told the king that there was in his empire a race of people that were inimical to his safety and stability, and who deserved to be exterminated. He said the race of people he referred to were so dangerous to the realm that the king could not afford to keep them alive. Indeed, Haman described the Jews in such horrific terms to the king that Xerses felt it was a solemn duty to have them exterminated. And so, he gave Haman authority to decree their complete annihilation, in one day. The decree instructed that every Jew was to be seized by their neighbors on a certain calendar day and killed. After this decree had been promulgated, Haman was leaving the palace one day and passed by Mordecai the Jew at the gate. The Jew did not bow down to him and Haman was vexed. When he got home, he told his wife all about his fame and position in the empire, and his wealth and everything he had and was, and how none of this made him feel any good as long as Mordecai refused to bow down to him. His wife told him to build gallows which were high, and ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on them.
Meanwhile, Mordecai lay in sackcloth and ashes, in mourning, having heard of the horrendous decree that had been promulgated concerning the Jews. People came and told Esther that her relative was dressed in sackcloth and ashes. Esther was embarrassed and set new clothes to Mordecai, who rejected them. Esther was worried. She asked courtiers to demand of Mordecai an explanation for his conduct. Mordecai told her through her messengers of the horrific decree concerning the complete extermination of the Jews. He asked Esther to speak to the king on the Jews' behalf. Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: "Everyone knows that it is unlawful to enter the presence of the king without being summoned. The penalty for such behavior is death. And I have not been summoned by the king for months now." Mordecai sent her this message in turn: "Do not presume that because you live in the king's palace as his queen you will be the only Jew spared. If you refuse to do anything, help will come to us from somewhere else, but you and your father's house will be done for. Besides, who knows whether you did not come to the throne specifically for a time like this." Esther sent him this message: "Gather all the Jews in the city and fast for three days on my behalf. I myself will fast and pray. Then I will go and see the king, and if I perish, I perish." Mordecai did as Esther urged. And Esther herself, with all her maids, threw herself into a period of fasting and prayer. And after days of fervent intercessory prayer, she got up, washed and oiled herself; put on her finest attire, and went to see the king. She was frightened because she had not first been summoned, but the king was happy to see her and invited her to ask of him anything at all, even half the empire, and he would give it to her. Esther asked that the king and Haman come to a dinner later that evening. The king sent word to Haman to come attend Esther's dinner. Haman was honored to, and so later that evening, Haman, the King and Esther sat down to dinner together. At dinner, the king asked Esther what she wanted, even to half the empire, and she said all she wanted was for the king and Haman to attend a second dinner the next day, and then she would make known her request.
Haman was elated to have had dinner with the royal family and he was returning home that evening when he passed by Mordecai at the gate. The Jew once again did not bow down to him. Haman was very angry, but he held his own. With gallows already built, he was determined to have Mordecai hanged that night. When he got home and conferred with his wife, he decided to return that night to the palace to request the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows now made ready. However, "that night the king could not sleep" (Esther 6:1a). [This is my favorite seven words in all the bible, both Old and New Testaments. It is my favorite because, as a child, first reading the story I was afraid that Mordecai was going to be done for if the things that happened that night had been different. If the king had been able to sleep, Haman might have won the day and executed Mordecai, and the story might have all been different. But because that night the king could not sleep, the story took a turn for the better.] And in his insomnia the king sent for the record books of the kingdom to be brought and read to him. In the record books, it was written that Mordecai had once saved the king from two potential assassins. He remembered the event and asked what reward had been given to Mordecai for saving his life. The courtiers reading to the king said that nothing had been done for Mordecai. The king said: "Is there anyone about who might advise me on how to reward Mordecai?" At that moment, Haman entered the palace to ask the king that Mordecai be hanged on the gallows. The king's courtiers replied that Haman was in the palace. The king asked that he be brought in and, when Haman had been shown into the king's bedroom, Xerxes asked him how best to honor someone. Haman assumed that it was he himself that the king wished to honor. And so he said to the king: "To honor someone, have your own horse brought, and dress the person in your own clothes, and put your own crown on his head and have your noblest officer lead the person on your horse all through the city proclaiming as they go, 'This is how the king honors someone.'" The king was pleased with Haman's suggestion and told him to do everything he had just said to Mordecai the porter at the palace gate. And so Haman arrayed Mordecai in royal robes, put him on the royal horse and paraded him all through the city square shouting as they went: "This is how the king chooses to honor someone." After this, Mordecai returned to his post at the palace gates, while Haman hurried home with head covered in shame. When he reached home he told his wife what had just happened. His wife said: "If it is the same Mordecai the Jew before whom you have begun to fall, you will not recover, but will continue to fall to your doom." The Bible tells us that she had barely finished saying this when courtiers arrived to hurry Haman to Esther's second dinner.
At that dinner, the king once again asked Esther what her request was. And Esther opened up to the king. She told him about Haman's treachery. She revealed to him for the first time that she was a Jew, a relative of Mordecai's. She told him how Haman so hated the Jews that he had conspired to have them all exterminated. She said she would have been content were her people simply reduced to servitude, but to be summarily exterminated was too grave a fate. The king was livid. He stood up to take a short walk in the garden, so as to think what to do with Haman. Meanwhile, Haman threw himself on Esther's couch to plead with her for forgiveness. And while he lay strewn beside Esther on the queen's couch, the king returned form his walk and found him in this compromising situation. He squealed: "Ah, is Haman also going to rape my wife right before my own eyes!" Immediately, one of the king's attendants said: "There is that tall set of gallows that Haman erected to hang Mordecai on. It is right there in his house." The king said, "Hang Haman on it at once." And so Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king was no longer angry. He then elevated Mordecai to Prime Minister and gave him all what had been Haman's. All Haman's offspring and possible heirs - ten sons - were killed, to blot him from the earth. And in the king's name, Mordecai issued a decree to counter Haman's earlier one designed to exterminate the Jews. This new decree gave the Jews the right to defend themselves and wipe out any ones who tried to harm them or were inimical to their wellbeing. And so, on a calendar day that should have been a day of destruction for the Jews, they rather rose up and secured their own safety. And all these things were recorded for posterity. Mordecai praised God for his deliverance in using Esther to save their people.
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