ESTHER

     There are only two books of the Bible named for women;  Esther and Ruth.  Both books are filled with love and courage.  And, both are about God's love and faithfulness to His people.  But Esther and Ruth's stories are very different.  Ruth's story is a sweet love story, while Esther's is more of a drama... filled with intrigue, irony, and treachery...

vintage poster, artist unknown

 The characters of this story:
     Esther, orphaned at a young age, was brought up by her only living relative, her cousin Mordecai..  Esther was extremely beautiful, and, apparently very smart too.  She made brave decisions when it would have been much safer to take the easy way out.
     Mordecai was a devout Jew who worked for the king. He lived in Susa, the Persian capital, during the reign of king Xerxes.  When his Uncle and Aunt died, he took in young Esther and raised her as his own.  He was a good man; he had prevented the king's assassination many years prior, but had never received recognition for it.  This good deed was, however, recorded in the king's logs.
     King Xerxes was the king of Persia.  At the end of a week-long banquet, he demanded that his beautiful queen, Vashti, "reveal herself" to all the drunken men at the banquet.  When Vashti refused,  he could have legally had her killed, but he did not.  He did, however, declare her no longer queen, and set out to find a new queen. There was a year-long process of special baths, oils, and other beautification processes that all these prospective queens went through before being presented to the king.  Each had one opportunity to meet and impress the king.  Out of all these girls, the king chose Esther, unaware that she was a Jew.


      Haman is the last main character in the story. He was second in command to king Xerxes.  Haman wasn't a very nice man... He purposely hid from the king the fact that Mordecai had prevented the assassination.  He hated the Jews, and formulated a plan to kill them.  He tricked the king into signing a treaty which would include the slaying of the Jews. He was a brute.

      Haman had a law passed that forced everyone to bow down to him when he walked through the palace. Mordecai, out of respect for God, refused to bow down to a man.  Haman held a grudge against Mordecai for this perceived disrespect, and tricked the king into signing a decree ordering the massacre of all the Jews in Persia.
  

    Delighted with himself, Haman built a twenty-five foot tall gallows next to his house.  He intended to execute Mordecai there as an example of what would happen to anyone who failed to bow down to him.  He cast lots - called "pur" - and thus selected March 13th as the day for the execution and massacre.
     When queen Esther heard of this, although she feared for her own life, she did the right thing.  First she fasted and prayed (and had many other Jews do so as well). Then, she went to the king, revealed her true identity, and begged him to prevent the massacre.
     Suffering from insomnia, king Xerxes spent the night reading record books about his earlier years as king.  Within these books he found records of the incident in which Mordecai had prevented his assassination.  He also found evidence that Haman had covered up the incident, preventing any reward for Mordecai.  Mordecai's good deed had gone unacknowledged and unrewarded for many years due to Haman's hatred.
     Angry over Haman's selfish plot, king Xerxes had Haman and his sons executed on the giant gallows which Haman had built for Mordecai's execution.  King Xerxes then appointed Mordecai to fill Haman's job - second in command to the king!
     What a twist of fate.  Now in this land of Jewish captivity, the king of Persia had a Jewish queen and a Jew as his top advisor!
  

     To celebrate her people's deliverance from the intended massacre, queen Esther created the holiday "Purim", named after the "pur" used for the casting of lots.  And, of course, this holiday is celebrated on the intended date of the massacre.
     The book of Esther has no "3:16", but one of the key verses of this book is Esther 4:16, which reads,
"Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.  I and my maids will do as you do.  I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.  And if I perish, I perish."
     Another interesting thing about the book of Esther is that the word "God" does not appear in it.  Yet, God is so present in Esther's story.  God placed Esther, a Jew, in the palace as queen of Persia.   God put Mordecai in the right place and time in several instances in this story. And, who but God could arrange for king Xerxes to have insomnia on exactly the right night, and to read exactly the right words on exactly the right page of a huge set of historical record books?
     God if faithful.  He doesn't always present himself through a burning bush or a clap of thunder.  Often He is in the quiet presence of a fellow-believer, or the rustle of a page of a book...

 

RUTH 3:16

     "When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, 'How did it go, my daughter?'  Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her."   (NIV)

Ruth and Naomi, from "Women in the BIble", painter unknown 

    Love. Selfless love. The kind in which each party places the other ahead of self.  The kind we all wish we could be a part of.  Ruth and her mother-in-law had that type of love.  Ruth was from Moab, a territory which was well-known for idol worship.  But when Ruth married one of Nami's sons, Namoi taught her about God.  And Ruth became a faithful follower of God.
     The name "Ruth: means "lovely friend",  and the name "Naomi" means "pleasant".  But, as the story unfolds, both Ruth and Naomi are recently widowed and destitute.  Naomi has made plans to return to her hometown of Bethlehem;  she hopes that she will find a relative there who will take her in.  As a widow, this is her only hope of survival.  Unsure of what will happen in Bethlehem, Naomi encourages Ruth to stay put, remarry, and be secure.  But Ruth insists on going with Naomi to Bethlehem;  she can't allow her friend to go alone with no one to take care of her.  This was a true friendship between these women;  each was putting the other's needs first.

Ruth in the Fields, painter Merle Hughes

 When the two women arrive in Bethlehem, they start to glean grain from a field.  In those days, it was the law to leave the corners of one's field unharvested.  These corners could then be gleaned by widows, orphans, and foreigners - all of whom would starve otherwise.  The women were gleaning the field when Boaz, the owner of the field, arrived on the scene.  He instructed his men to give them extra grain and to be kind to them.  As it turns out, Boaz was related to Naomi's deceased husband, but Boaz showed kindness to the women before he knew this.
     The book of Ruth has only four chapters.  It's an easy read.  And it's sort of like a "Cinderella story". Ruth would be "Cinderella" and Boaz would be "Prince Charming".  Boaz, a wealthy man, showed kindness to both women upon their arrival in Bethlehem.  Eventually, Boaz married Ruth, and they took Naomi in and cared for her the rest of her life.  It is recorded in the Bible that throughout her days Ruth was known for her love and kindness toward others.  That sounds like "happily ever after" to me...
     But, then, the writer tacked on a little list of geneology at the end of Ruth's story. And, we find out from this list of who-begat-whom that Ruth was the great-grandmother of king David, which makes her a direct ancestor of Jesus the Messiah.  There are only four women listed in the geneology of Jesus Christ.  Ruth is one of them. So, from an "unimportant" widow from a pagan country... came a great woman of God.