As the first several chapters of the book of Esther recount, King Xerxes had been persuaded to sign a decree permitting the extermination of the Jewish people within his kingdom. Unbeknownst to him, though, his queen (named Esther) was Jewish, and she wasn’t going to let that decree be carried out without at least trying to do something about it.
After a multi-day lead-up, including a fast and two banquet invitations, Queen Esther presented her important request to the king.
Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”
Esther 7:3-4 NIV
She wanted her and her people’s lives to be spared. She was asking the king to stop a genocide that he’s been convinced to endorse across his kingdom.
Note how the queen underscores the importance of what she is asking. Esther says that if her people were “only” sold into slavery, she wouldn’t bother the king with something like that. And, in fact, the Hebrew people had been enslaved by the Egyptians in the centuries after Joseph. They had also been conquered and many were exiled by the Babylonians (whose kingdom was later taken over by others, prior to Xerxes’s rule).
Still the Jewish people continued to have an identity and a heritage and a God who took care of them. They had endured through slavery and conquest, but given the wide range of the Persian empire at the time, Haman’s decree had the potential to effectively wipe them out.
If you’ve been following along (or know the earlier parts of this account) remember that Esther had kept her heritage a secret from the king and most of his counselors. (I suspect that her cousin and caretaker Mordecai didn’t anticipate this exact turn of events, but his advice to Esther to keep her nationality hidden was used by God for something much bigger.)
So, this news is a revelation to Haman, just as it is to the king. In all of Haman’s anger towards Mordecai the Jew (resulting in Haman persuading the king to issue the decree against Mordecai’s people), I don’t think that Haman ever dreamed that he was calling for the extermination of the queen and her people. Had he known this, along with how the king felt about Esther, he probably would have taken a different approach.
A commentator [Mangano, p.95, citing Clines] pointed out how this revelation actually put Esther in more danger, since now people would know that she was covered under Haman’s decree (issued in the king’s name) to kill the Jewish people. However, the story isn’t over yet.
King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”
Esther 7:5 NIV
This is a natural question. If I heard that someone was plotting against someone I care about, I’d want to know who was doing such a thing, so that I could take action. King Xerxes, though, is not bound by political power limits, nor does he necessarily have a strong moral compass. So, he’s ready to unload some raw fury on whoever would do something like this to his queen!
Let’s consider Esther’s response in the next article…
From Sunday School lesson prepared for July 21, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, July 21, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The Bible and Archaeology, by J.A. Thompson, © 1962, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., p.166-171.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Esther & Daniel, by Mark Mangano. © 2001 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 