Esther 2 - - Esther, Mordecai, Haman

In today's post, we will look at some other key players in the Esther story.  Let's start with the heroine.

Esther
Her name is a derivative of a Babylonian word (Ishtahar) which means “beautiful as the moon”. Hebrew is “astir”, meaning “hidden or covering or concealed”.  She is also called Hadassah, which means “Myrtle tree”, a tree which features prominently in the Jewish Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles).  Myrtle was also used in Jewish marriage ceremonies, where the branches and leaves were worn as a garland crown.  Myrtle trees are plentiful around Jerusalem, and are often believed to represent Jerusalem, in the scriptures.  (See Zechariah 1:8-11.)
Esther comes on the scene in the seventh year of Ahasuerus' reign, about four years after Vashti has been deposed/divorced.  Esther is the ward of her first cousin, Mordecai, a high-ranking official in the Persian Empire.  Both are of the tribe of Benjamin, although both conceal their Jewish heritage through most of the story.
Esther represents the bride of Messiah, believers of all tribes and nations.  Not only that, she represents a surrendered and obedient Bride, one willing to risk her very life to accomplish the will of God.

Mordecai
Mordecai represents the True Messiah, the Second Adam, who has triumphed over His ancient enemy, Satan, and will rule and reign over Heaven and Earth forever and ever.  Mordecai's ancestors were among those who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar several decades earlier (Esther 2:6).  While many Jews returned in three waves to Jerusalem after King Cyrus the Great, through his appointed regent, Darius the Mede, gave them permission to go1 - - - the family of Mordecai did not return.  He became a high-ranking official in the Persian government of his day.  This is reflected by the note in Esther 2:19, that he sat at the king's gate.  This is where the high-ranking officials of the realm congregated. (See Nehemiah 11:1.)
Many Jews did not return to Jerusalem, in any of the commonly acknowledged 3 waves of return, over a 110-year period.  Even in Jesus' day, the region of Babylon remained heavily populated by Jews.  Babylon was referred to as "the East", even though the area is more to the northeast of Jerusalem.  Hence, the "wise men" or Magi, who came to bring the infant Jesus gifts, were likely Babylonian Jews, whose ancestors, like Mordecai, never left the region.  (I digress...)

It is important to look at Mordecai's family history.  We are told in Esther 2:5 that he descended from Kish, a Benjamite.
Mordecai was a humble, righteous man, who did his duty to Esther and to the king without seeking recognition or reward.  He was also discerning.  He recognized early on the danger all the Jews of the Persian empire faced if Haman were not stopped; he also recognized Esther's divinely-appointed, pivotal role in preventing their annihilation.

Haman
Although like Mordecai in that both were high-ranking governmental officials, the similarities between these two men ended there.  Introduced in Esther 3, Haman was a deceiver, a vain and arrogant man, always seeking his own promotion, regardless of the harm he caused others.  His desire for advancement was so extreme, it blinded him to the most basic truths and rules of conduct.  He is the villain of the Esther story, providing the conflict to the story's plot.  While he presents himself as a loyal servant to the King, he is merely using the king for his own evil purposes.  Haman represents in this story of God's redemption the False Messiah, the concealed False Messiah.  False Messiah is the Jewish term for the Antichrist.

Let's dig a little deeper into this business of Who's Yo Daddy?, and why it matters to this story.

Take a look with me back at 1 Samuel 9:1-2.  Who was Kish's son?  That's right, Saul, the first king of Israel.  By all appearances, Saul would have made a fine king.  Unfortunately, he turned to disobedience, and his disobedience to God figures into the Esther story.  Now, let's look at 1 Samuel 15:1-11.  Of particular interest is verse 9.

9Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calvesb and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to destroy them ...

Do you see it?  Saul is a picture of Adam, the first man and ruler of Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden).  Adam and Saul failed to uphold righteousness.  God had commanded Saul to destroy utterly all of the Amalekites, including Agag, their king.  When Haman is called an Agagite in Esther 3:1, it means he was a descendant of Agag, who is a picture of Satan.
Once again, history repeats.  In the Esther story, we have an Agagite trying to destroy the Jews.
HAD SAUL DONE AS GOD COMMANDED HIM, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO AGAGITES, meaning, no Haman, no crisis, no pending extermination of the Jewish people, hundreds of years after Saul, in the 5th century B.C.

When we consciously disobey God, thinking we know better than He (or for whatever god-forsaken justification) we rarely can foresee the long-range consequences of our disobedience.  Thankfully, He allowed descendants of Kish to redeem that family name through their submissive obedience, because both Mordecai and Esther surrendered to His leading at this critical point in Jewish history.

As Mordecai pointed out to Esther (Esther 4:13-14), if she had said, "No!", God would have raised up someone else to deliver His chosen people.  Both Mordecai and Esther were devout Jews, who were well aware of the covenants which God had made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. They knew He would keep His word, which declared He would not allow His chosen ones to be utterly destroyed.  The question was, "Would Esther and Mordecai fulfill the purpose to which God had called them, in this cosmic battle?"  Would they embrace the task, risking their very lives for Him? Or, would they decline, and miss the blessing God had for them, even if that blessing was in the form of death?

Here is something that Christian martyrs have understood for two milennia, whether you are talking about first century Christian martyrs or those ruthlessly killed by Muslims in Nigeria over the past two years. 2 Yes, this genocide is still going on.  If Christians are living in the center of God's will, fulfilling His purpose for them, then death is not a punishment.  They understand that following hard after Jesus Christ, their Savior, is better than physical life and that, in the end, physical death is ... irrelevant.

Esther knew this truth too.  Not only did she know it, she acted on it.  Ultimately, her acts of submission and obedience caused glad tidings of freedom and salvation to be broadcast far and wide across the Persian Empire (Esther 8:9-14).

Sources:

1  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Zion

2  https://www.christianpost.com/news/fifty-christians-burned-alive-in-pastors-home-in-nigeria-78303/

Esther 1 - - Ahasuerus and Vashti

This is the first in what I’m planning as a series of blog posts on the book of Esther.  Many of my readers are familiar with the story and even know that Jews have a celebration each year, surrounding this book of the Tanakh (Old Testament).  That celebration occurs in the spring, not long before Passover, and is called Purim (Poo-REEM). 

From whence does the name Purim come?  When you see an "im" on the end of a Hebrew word, it indicates the plural.  For example, Elohim is plural for our Triune God, Three-in-One.  Kohanim is a word that means priesthood, a plurality of priests.  The word purim means "lots".  Jewish people of the ancient world would cast lots to discern God's will in a decision, sort of like the modern-day equivalent of rolling dice.  So, you might call the Jewish Feast of Purim the Feast of Lots, or the Feast of Dice.  At various points in the Esther story, it seems that events are spiraling out of control.  They are never, however, out of God's control.  By the end of the story, the will and hand of God cause every "lot" to fall into His perfect will.

Recently, I studied the book of Esther with Dr. Jennifer Scrivner of Beth HaShomer Ministries, Joseph Good of Hatikvah Ministries, and some friends. I learned a lot about its historical connotations and symbolism.  It’s those aspects I hope to add to your understanding of this great book, as we journey through.
I am not going to re-tell the basic story here.  To refresh your memory, it is recommended you re-read Esther before jumping into these blog posts.

One of unique features of the book of Esther is that it never mentions the name of the LORD directly.  It is the only book of the Bible with this distinct feature.  Some scholars of Judaism believe The Name is hidden in various verses as an acrostic in four different verses, a concealment of sorts. Concealment, hiddenness, is a theme of the book.  A couple of examples: Mordecai and Esther concealed their Jewish heritage from the king.  Haman concealed his ulterior, evil motives from the king.
At any rate, the rabbis debated and debated whether or not to even include the book of Esther in the Tanakh, because of the fact that The Name, the Tetragrammaton (YHWH, the name of the LORD too holy to be spoken aloud) is not explicitly mentioned therein.
In the Temple, the ineffable, personal name of the L-RD was only invoked in certain areas - - the inner court (the Azarah) - - for example.  When the priests pronounced the blessing on the people, and heard that Name spoken aloud, they fell prostrate on their faces before Him.  The only other time it was said aloud was when the priest performed the annual Yom Kippur service, and then he said it 8 times in the Holy of Holies.

Along with the theme of concealment, other themes in the book have to do with the (future) False Messiah and his demonic hatred of the Jews, as well as the Messianic Kingdom of the last days. These will be developed more fully later in this study.  The date span, over which the Esther story took place, is given in the book to be between Nisan 13 and 17, roughly the dates of Passion Week, in Jesus’ day.  Again, this will become more relevant later in our study.

Now, let’s look at the key players in this story and what many scholars believe they represent.

The King (Ahasuerus)

{Parenthetical:  at this point my study truly went down a rabbit hole.  For two days, I studied the various Ahasueruses and Dariuses of the Bible. Do not proceed if you want to keep your sanity, as there were 3 different Dariuses listed in the Bible, and also 3 different Ahasueruses, lol!
Here is what I was able to put together from various sources about those rulers.}

There are 3 separate Persian dynasties which flit in and out of scripture.
1. Ahasuerus (Cyaxares I).  He had two sons: Cambyses I and Darius the Mede.  Cambyses was the father of Cyrus the Great, overarching ruler of Persia from 590-530 B.C.  During Cyrus’ reign, he appointed his uncle, Darius the Mede, as prefect/satrap over Babylon; he served in that capacity from 538-536 B.C., right after Babylon fell.) This is the Darius of Daniel 6:1 and 9:1.  Cyrus the Great was succeeded by Cambyses II, also known as Ahasuerus (the second Ahasuerus mentioned in scripture). Some believe this "second Ahasuerus" was the Ahasuerus referred to in Ezra 4.  At first, I did not believe so.  However, after careful study, I believe he actually was.  Cambyses II ruled for only about 8 years, 530-522.  The reason I believe he was the Ahasuerus of Esther and of Ezra is because of the historical dates of each ruler's reign.  This king died, leaving no heirs, a very important point.  Accordingly....
2. The next dynasty to come to power was through the Persian satrap, Hystaspes, because Cambyses II left no heirs.  Hystaspes' son was Darius I (Darius the Great), who reigned from 522-487 (Darius #2 in scripture).  Darius' son was Xerxes I (aka Ahasuerus - - the third Ahasuerus in scripture).  Xerxes I ruled from 487-465 and, as previously mentioned, some scholars believe he is the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther and Ezra 4.  Xerxes I is also sometimes called Artaxerxes, but it was actually his son who was Artaxerxes I and who succeeded him.
3. The third Darius in scripture is mentioned in Nehemiah 12:12.  This “Darius the Persian” is Darius Codomannus (336-331) of history, the last ruler of Persia before the Persian Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great.

So.....
The Persian Empire, at the time of Esther, stretched from Egypt to India (Esther 1:1 and 8:9).
The setting of the story is either 527 B.C. or 483 B.C., depending on "which Ahasuerus" you subscribe to.  After their 70 years of captivity to the Babylonians (608-538), some of the Jews had been allowed to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the Temple (which was finished in 516 BC).  The story of Esther takes place during a lull in the construction of the Temple.  Therefore, if Xerxes I reigned from 486 to 465, and the Temple was completed in 516 B.C., Xerxes I would not be Esther's king.  Jewish tradition holds that Ahasuerus had halted the rebuilding for a short time and that it was during this lull that the story of Esther took place.  The prophet Ezra says this:

4  Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build. 

5  They hired counselors against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

 6  At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, an accusation was lodged against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

7  And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes.

Ezra 4:4-7

A careful reading of these verses shows that the opposition to rebuilding, which had been occurring for decades, off and on since the reign of Cyrus, intensified to an accusation to King Xerxes I and an outright letter of appeal to his son, King Artaxerxes I.  The actually stoppage was ordered by Xerxes I’s son, Artaxerxes.

Here is an interesting tale about Xerxes I (just for the fun of it).  He invaded Greece with an army, it is said, of more than 2,000,000 soldiers, only 5,000 of whom returned with him. Leonidas, with his famous 300, arrested his progress at the Pass of Thermopylae, and then he was defeated disastrously by Themistocles at Salamis. Xerxes I had quite a temper.  It’s reported he was so angry at this naval loss to the Greeks, he commanded that his troops “whip the Mediterranean Sea” (with whips!) for the entire 3-day journey from Athens back to Persia!

Regardless of which Ahasuerus you subscribe to, Cambyses II or Xerxes I, the king represented ultimate authority and supreme worldly power.  Although a corrupted, idolatrous pagan, he is a picture of the authority of the Most High God.

Queen Vashti

In the Oral Torah (the Midrash), Cyrus the Persian (Cyrus the Great) and Darius the Mede were at the infamous banquet on the night King Belshazzar of Babylon died (Daniel 5:2-4). If you recall, it was at this banquet Belshazzar ordered the sacred items from the Jewish Temple brought out of storage and used as common tableware.  At that time, “the writing on the wall” appeared.  The Midrash says that in the pandemonium which took place after Daniel interpreted the writing, a chandelier fell from the ceiling onto Belshazzar, killing him instantly.  9-year old Vashti is identified as the orphaned daughter of Belshazzar. The Midrash goes on to say that King Darius the Mede married her off to Ahasuerus, his son, also known as Cambyses II, years later.  Belshazzar died in 539 B.C., and the banquet of Cambyses II (Ahasuerus) took place in 527 B.C., the third year of his reign.  If Vashti were 9 when Belshazzar died, she would have been around 21 when the banquet described in Esther took place, IF you believe the Ahasuerus of Esther was Cambyses II.
The third year of Xerxes I's reign would have been 484 B.C., which would have made Vashti somewhere in her late-60s when the story of Esther took place.  Not likely.
Regardless....

When the biblical story of Esther begins, Vashti is the Queen.  She is referred to as Queen Vashti until she refuses to answer Ahasuerus’ summons to appear before his guests at a banquet held in the third year of his reign.  After her refusal, her royal title is revoked. The divorce from Queen Vashti occurred after the infamous, royal banquet.  The Oral Torah (Midrash) states that the Esther 1:11 summons for Queen Vashti to appear “in her crown” to be actually “nothing but her crown”, in other words, to be paraded around butt-naked, which would amply explain why she refused.

Some scholars believe Vashti represents those caught up in paganism, including faux-Christian paganism, who reject King Jesus’ summons (Luke 14:16-24) and who will be replaced with the true Bride of Christ (both Gentile and Jewish believers).

We will continue in the next post, with the remaining characters in the story.

Sources:

https://biblehub.com/topical/a/ahasuerus.htm


https://www.gotquestions.org/Darius-in-the-Bible.html

Cahn, J., The Book of Mysteries: "The Cosmic Dice", p. 189, Charisma House Book Group, Lake Mary FL, 2016

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/vashti-midrash-and-aggadah


https://www.sefaria.org/Megillah.12b?lang=bi