Why Are You Here? Series

The story of Esther has fascinated people for centuries. It’s the story of a beautiful Jewish girl named Esther, and of the King of Persia named Xerxes (Ahasuerus) who fell in love with her and made her his queen.

But from that point on… the story gets complicated. King Xerxes has a trusted advisor named Haman who hates the Jews and plots to have them destroyed. Haman even goes so far… as to LIE to the King saying: “Certain people (the Jews)… keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their practices are different from the practices of all other people. THEY DON’T OBEY YOUR LAWS. It really isn’t good for you to put up with them. If it pleases you, give the order to destroy them...” Esther 3:8-9

(Now, bear with me for a few moments, because this next part of the sermon intrigues me. If it’s not interesting to you… put your mind on snooze, and I’ll wake you up in a bit).

But this is important to me… because I’ve often encountered people who attack the Bible. There are people who try to undermine our faith in scripture. So whenever I come across information that verifies the history in the Bible… I'm a dog with a bone.

Now, Haman was a godless man who hated the Jews… and he hated their God (Pause) And things haven’t changed in over 2000 years. There are still godless people who hate our God… and they tend to hate us. And they’ve attacked our faith in the Bible. And (of course) they’ve attacked the Book of Esther.

For centuries, critics have said Esther was “made-up” story… a work of fiction. Many have said Esther was written a couple hundred years after the events by some Greek story-teller… in spite of the fact that there were no Greek words in the story. (You’d expect Greek words from a Greek story-teller, but they’re just not there).

The objective of these godless folks is to attack and undermine your faith in God and in His Word. But there are few problems with their criticism. First – it’s in the Bible. And the Bible presents Esther as truth… and I take God at His word.

2ndly – practically everything in this book lines up with history. There was a King Xerxes (the Bible also calls him Ahasuerus), and Xerxes/ Ahasuerus’ kingdom was exactly as described in Esther. Esther 1:1 “In the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces” and that’s exactly how large Persia was at the time. It was a big kingdom.

In addition, the story is peppered with Persian & Aramaic words that were common to that age. If the story were made up in a later time, those type of words wouldn’t have been there.

And history tells us that King Xerxes was a one-woman man (monogamous) Now… by contrast, Xerxes’ father and son BOTH who had several wives. And what was the name of Xerxes wife? Well… Greek historians called her Queen Amestris, and that Amestris was a powerful queen of Persia. She held power all the way through to the end of Xerxes reign, and on into the reign of their son Artaxerxes. There are a number of scholars have concluded that Amestris was Esther. Why? Because if you take the Greek ending (TRIS) off of Ames-tris you end up with the name could be rendered “Am-ester” … which is very close to the Jewish name Esther. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b04yWnkeDKE)

And so, the Book Of Esther is trustworthy. And the story is true - which brings us to the question… why is it in the Bible? Why is Esther there? Well, it’s there because the book of Esther has a purpose. The story of Esther is in the Bible, so we can answer that same question about ourselves: Why Are We Here?

I don’t know if you’d knew this but the book of Esther is the only book of the Bible that never mentions God. God’s name never shows up in Esther. The closest we get to God even being “referred to” is the warning that Mordecai makes: "Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:13-14

You see, Esther was afraid to approach her husband… and with good reason. Xerxes could be a cruel and dangerous man. After all, he was the one who signed the order to exterminate the Jews, and (of course) Esther was a Jew. But Mordecai confronts her and rebukes her and warns her of the judgment of God: You will not escape… you will perish.