Esther
Overview
- King Ahasuerus throws a 7 day party
- Queen Vashti holds a party for the women
- On the last day, the king requests the queen join. She refuses and is therefore banished from the king’s court
- In search of a new, more “worthy” queen, Hadassah (Esther) - an orphan being raised by her cousin, Mordecai - is select from amongst the most attractive women in the land
- For 12 months, she was scrubbed and trained how to go from a slave of war to a queen and was presented to the king and she was found to be his favorite, becoming queen
- Mordecai overhears two of the king’s eunuchs plotting to kill the king. He tells Esther, who tells the king. The king investigates and finds it to be true. The traitors are killed
- Later, Haman is put into place as the king’s right hand. Mordecai refuses to bow to him because he was a Jew that would bow to no man
- Haman, enraged, pushes to have all the Jews killed
- Haman tells the king that there is a sect that ignores all of the king’s laws and who follow their own instead, asking to have them all killed. The king obliged without question
- Mordecai descovers the plot and alerts Esther, reminding her that she will not be spared and that she may well be in her position of power “for such a time as this”
- The king recalls that Mordecai was given nothing and has Haman honor him
- Esther petitions the king that her and her people are all set to be slaughtered by Haman, at which the king flies into a rage and steps away. Haman throws himself onto the couch out of distress. The king, upon entering, accuses him of wishing to also rape Esther. He then hangs Haman on the gallows meant for Mordecai
- The king enacts law to protect the Jews
John 5
- “After this there was a Jewish feast and Jesus went up to Jerusalem”
- Bethesda - Beth zatha = “House of Mercy”
- Disabled man of 38 years:
- Victim mentality
- Do you want to be healed? “I can’t”
- No one will help me
- I get there too late
- Pick up your mat and walk
- “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
Important