14 July – Additional Notes

ESTHER 2: QUALIFICATIONS FOR ROYALTY

If you have stumbled upon my website today and wondering what on earth a storyline from the ancient past has to do with us today, stick around a bit longer, this is definitely a profitable read.[a] But to give you a bit of background, this isn’t a human story at all. If it was, the study of ancient manuscripts proves beyond doubt that it simply wouldn’t have survived humanity’s turbulent past in parchment form to begin with. Far greater Empires, like the Persian Empire in today’s chapter (that covered 127 provinces from India the Cush – the upper Nile), would surely have had documents that survived. Nothing has survived. Bizarrely though, the story of two exiled slaves in today’s chapter HAS survived against all odds. So, what you are reading today is instead the personal diary of the Creator God Himself – HIStory in human history, that He compiled from His personal interventions over 6000+ years of human history, then miraculously preserved and translated into 2100+ languages for us to read today. Like an epic Shakespearean Play, we’re now into Act 17 The Book of Esther, Scene 2.

The Emperor for the Persian Empire, who currently ruled over the then known world, had kicked out his wife in yesterday’s Breadcrumb, thus setting the stage for this Act’s divine intervention – the salvation of an entire people group. The curtains on the stage open up on a King who’s getting a bit sorry for himself that he got rid of his queen. [v1] But before he could relent and cause the problems that his officials foresaw in yesterday’s chapter, his attendants came up with a counterplan. [v2-4] And whether you understand it or agree with it or not (why would a lovely God allow such a glutenous tyrant skim off all the beautiful virgins across an entire empire just to satisfy one ‘need’: the replace his queen), it happened and it was that culture.

But from where He sits above human history, the God that’s being scorned in that thought saw something vastly more devastating on the road ahead. The orphan Esther is scooped up with all the beautiful girls in the empire; and like any parent, her cousin and guardian Mordecai is worried. [v5-8] But a note to make here. Although Mordecai is not a direct descendant of the first King of Israel, his ancestor was brother to the king. [v5] If Esther was cousin ‘in the right direction’, a daughter in the direct line, she may have been royalty. Either way, they were nobility in their heart and mind yet outwardly exiled slaves.

Whether Esther had the Qualifications for Royalty and carried herself with an innate grace or not, certainly “the good hand of her God was upon her” just as Nehemiah testified to in my earlier Breadcrumbs this month.[b] She gained favour with everyone she came in contact with and was immediately treated differently, specially. [v9&15] Again these are clues between the lines for any feminist looking at Esther’s life crumbling as her dreams of marrying a boy she loved disintegrated and she was forced into sex slavery with an undoubtedly old, fat, ugly man who may not even call her by name if she disinterested him. [v14] But Father God was walking Esther’s harrowing journey as Mordecai prayed as he paced outside. [v11] Both she and Mordecai already knew their Maker’s script from as far back as the Days of Moses…

“Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of their faces; for Hashem Eloheicha, (the LORD our God) He it is who goes with you; He will not fail you, nor abandon you.” [Deuteronomy 31:6]

If negative thoughts produce negative emotions that in time work their way out in negative behaviour, Esther showed no sign of negative thoughts. In quiet peace between the lines of fear, Esther submitted to every instruction and any advice given while Mordecai paced outside. [v10,15&20] And here again, v16 shows that we can peg these events not in a book of fairytales, but in real history with names and times and dates. If real, if miraculously preserved, and if our 100% perfect Maker doesn’t do random with no value, then it has to mean something for us today – something about our complete trust in our Creator and humble obedience during the storms that trap us without escape. This is highly likely to be at the back of why 6 million Jews went to the deaths quietly and submissively – “led like a lamb to the slaughter in silence they came”.[c]

Regardless of getting the fairy book ‘man of our dreams’, all women want to be loved more than any other woman and treaded kindly. This was undoubtedly a huge answer to all their prayers in such a horrible situation. [v17-18] Rather than a concubine sex toy, Esther, the young orphan from an exiled slave population was not disgraced further, but was instead first lady in the greatest empire on earth at that time. Now if this was a fairytale, that would make a nice fairytale ending. However, the story doesn’t stop there…

However, while clearly interested in the plight of individual human images of Himself[d], the Creator God has the whole Play from start to finish in mind. So then, unbeknown to anyone at all at the time, Father God was moving chess pieces into place and Mordecai’s frontline position in search of Esther in the crowd that day [v19] put him in a position for hearing about a random plot to assassinate to Emperor. [v21-23] Noone will ever know why these men wanted the king dead. Could it have been retaliation, for making their sister or daughter (whom they thought had the qualifications for royalty) a concubine instead? Whatever the reason, it was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence [v23] but that book, as it turned out, never survived. Apparently, even this empire’s history was irrelevant and not essential to the Creator God’s Global Masterplan. Instead, another agenda was at play and Mordecai’s brave act of ‘doing what’s right in the face of danger’ [v21-22], becomes an important move in my next Breadcrumbs as the world’s longest running drama unfolds….

CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”

[a] 2 Timothy 3:16-17

[b] Nehemiah 2:8&18

[c] Isaiah 53:7 and Jeremiah 11:19

[d] Genesis 1:26-28