Woman Overcomes The Odds To Save The Jews

How would the world react to the leader of the largest and most powerful country in the world enforcing a law that would require women to respect their husbands and legally establish each man as ruler over his own household? How would the world would react if this leader's top official convinced him to approve, fund and carry out a plan to completely destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews? How would the world would respond if a Jewish woman overcame these odds to thwart this plan of human atrocity and save her people?

2600 years ago, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded and captured Jerusalem, thousands of Jews were taken captive to Babylon. Eighty years later, the Jews were still in exile under Xerxes Ahasuerus who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush in the Nile Region.

Xerxes did little to win the endorsement of the women in his kingdom. When Queen Vashti refused to be paraded in front of the men attending one of Xerxes' great banquets, he not only banned her from his presence forever, he issued a decree requiring women to respect their husbands and giving every man legal authority to be the ruler over his own household.

In order to find a new queen, a search was launched for beautiful young virgins in every province of Xerxes' realm. One of the girls chosen was a beautiful young Jewish girl named Esther, described as 'lovely in form and features'. Esther and the other girls were brought into the king's harem at the palace fortress called the citadel of Susa. Her cousin Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter because she had no living parents, forbade her to reveal her nationality and family background for her own protection. The king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women and he made her queen instead of Vashti.

During one of his visits to see his daughter the Queen, Mordecai discovered that two of the king's officers were conspiring to assassinate King Xerxes. He told Queen Esther, who reported it to the authorities, giving credit to Mordecai. The two officers were hanged and the report was filed in the king's records.

A few years later, Xerxes promoted Haman, one of his top officials, to a seat of honor higher than all the other nobles. The king commanded all the royal officials to kneel down and pay honor to Haman. One man refused-Mordecai.

Haman was enraged. Having learned who Mordecai's people were, he was not satisfied just to kill Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom. Haman convinced King Xerxes the Jews had customs that were different from all other people, they did not obey the king's laws and that it was not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. He recommended the king issue a decree to destroy them and offered 375 tons of silver to pay for the costs of the holocaust. The king approved and the edict was issued. Mordecai and all the Jews in every province mourned the news; Queen Esther knew nothing of the king's order.

When she heard something was wrong with Mordecai, she sent one of her attendants to find out what it was. Mordecai informed him about the edict and told him to urge Esther to go to the king to beg for mercy for her people. Esther sent word to Mordecai that the law stipulated that anyone approaching the king without being summoned would be put to death…unless the king granted a royal exception by extending his gold scepter.

Mordecai responded: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther sent her final reply: "…I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

As Esther approached the king, he held out the gold scepter. He asked, "What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you." Esther invited the king and Haman to a banquet that same day. As they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, "What is your petition? It will be given you…" Esther asked them to come the next day to another banquet she would prepare for them. They agreed.

As Haman left the palace, he was excited that he was the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave…and that she had invited him again the next day. His excitement quickly dissipated as he saw Mordecai, who refused to rise or show fear of Haman. As he arrived home, his wife and friends suggested he build a 75 foot gallows and ask the king the next day at the banquet to have Mordecai hanged on it. The gallows were built immediately.

That night, the king couldn't sleep, so he ordered that the records of his reign be brought in and read to him. These records revealed that years earlier Mordecai had exposed the conspiracy to assassinate King Xerxes. When the king discovered Mordecai had never been honored or recognized for this, he asked to have Haman brought in. Coincidentally, Haman was just arriving to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had erected. When Haman entered, the king asked him what should be done for the man the king wants to honor. Thinking the king was referring to him, Haman said the king should have one of his nobles adorn the man with one of the king's royal robes and parade him through the city streets on one of the king's horses with the royal crest on its head proclaiming before him, "This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!"

"Go at once," the king commanded Haman. "Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended." Imagine the look on Haman's face when those words came out of the king's mouth!

Haman had no choice but to lead Mordecai on horseback through the city streets proclaiming, "This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!" Afterward Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home dejected and completely humiliated. As he was telling his wife and friends what had happened, the kings eunuchs arrived to hurry him away to the banquet Esther had prepared.

As they were drinking wine at the second banquet, the king again asked, "Queen Esther what is your petition? …Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted."

Queen Esther answered, "Grant me my life-this is my petition. And spare my people-this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation."

When the king asked who had done such a thing to her and her people, Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman." The king got up in a rage and went out into the palace garden. Haman, realizing he was in deep sneakers, stayed behind to beg Esther for mercy.

As he approached Esther, Haman fell on the couch where she was reclining just as the king returned from the garden. The king exclaimed, "Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?" As soon as the king said this, the eunuchs put Haman under restraints. One of the eunuchs quickly informed the king there was a 75 foot gallows at Haman's house that he had built for hanging Mordecai. The king said, "Hang him on it!"

That same day, King Xerxes gave Queen Esther Haman's estate. Mordecai was brought to the king because Esther told him how he was related to her. The king took the signet ring he had reclaimed from Haman and presented it to Mordecai and Esther appointed him over Haman's estate. Esther did not stop there, however. She begged and pleaded with the king to reverse the edict he had sent out to destroy all the Jews. The king agreed, asking Mordecai to write dispatches for all the provinces allowing the Jews to "…assemble and protect themselves; to destroy kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them…". The written account states, "On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them."

A Jewish woman in a male dominated society filled with racial prejudice and hatred faced formidable odds, but when her father asked her, "…And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?", she responded, putting her life on the line to save her people. We need more Esthers in our world who will ask themselves, "…And who knows but that I have come to my position for such a time as this?".

(The account of this remarkable story is recorded in detail in the Book of Esther in the Bible. The French began excavations of Susa in 1852 and resumed them in 1884 under M. Dieulafoy. The details of the sight that pointed out the marvelous accuracy of the Book of Esther made so profound an impression upon Dieulafoy that he made a scale model of the great palace in which so many of the events took place in the Book of Esther and placed it in the Museum of the Louvre in Paris.)