Week 34 Esther
I read Esther today. If some guy told me he was only going to read one book in the OT and asked me what I thought was the very best story I’d most likely say “read Esther”. Esther is easy to read because it’s pretty short but more importantly It’s a Great Great Story.
If the guy said “okay but what’s the story about?” I’d read him the condensed version from Esther: Haman had plotted to crush and destroy the Jews on the day and month he had determined by casting lots. But Esther begged the king and so he issued a decree causing Haman’s plot to backfire, and Haman was hanged on the gallows.
Esther is also pretty scarily contemporary. I don’t have to go back 2500 years to find another example of where Jewish people were so violently hated as an entire race that official & legalized & cool-headed steps were taken to totally exterminate them.
At the end of the story the Jewish exiles were saved and Mordecai & Esther set up a celebratory annual festival: the people agreed to inaugurate this tradition…and they declared they would never fail to celebrate these two days. I checked to see if they kept that promise and it looks like they did. The Purim festival is still celebrated as a day of joy, marked by merrymaking and feasting. And it’s easy to see why.
Note: quotes from Esther 9:24-25 (paraphrased) 9:27 (NLT) & The Columbia Encyclopedia 5th edition 1993 ‘Purim’