A case study of Esther, The King Ahasuerus, Haman, Mordecai and The Jews – Text: Esther Chapters 3-6
In the Book of Esther, we find a young Queen Esther that was faced with the challenge of saving herself, her Uncle Mordecai and her people the Jews, because a very wicked powerful man in the land called Haman had taken offence in her Uncle Mordecai for not bowing before him.
Haman lied against the Jews by saying to the King that there were certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of his kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither did they keep the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them to live. Haman planned and he persuaded the King to sign into law a decree to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
The only way Esther could carry out this task of saving herself and her people as if she stood before her Husband the King and at that time no one was allowed to come unto the king, into his inner court except he called for you, if the King did not invite you and you appeared before him, it carried a death sentence, and at that time Esther had not been called unto the King for 30 days.
Before Esther went before her husband the King to present her case. She, her maids, Mordecai and the whole of the Jews in Shushan fasted and prayed for 3 days and 3 nights. Only after this was she able to receive the wisdom and understanding she needed to present her case before her husband.
Proverbs 14: 1 ‘A wise woman buildeth her own house’. Wisdom is profitable to direct.
On the third day after the fasting & prayer, Esther dressed up in her royal apparel and stood in the courts of the Palace of her husband the king and God granted her favour and the King held out his golden sceptre to her and asked her to come to him and she did. Her husband started by asking what her petition (request) was, even to the half of his Kingdom, he was ready to give her anything and everything, but she was wise in her asking (making her petition) she made her enemy become very comfortable before she struck.
She prepared a banquet twice, after the first banquet Haman was very happy and he boasted to his family and friends that he was the only one Queen Esther invited to the banquet with the King and he went home and built gallows to hang Mordecai the Jew.
Before Queen Esther went before her husband, the King for the second banquet, God had already started to intervene on her behalf: The Bible says in Isaiah 65:24 ‘And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
The Bible makes us to understand that during the night after the first banquet, the King could not sleep and he asked for the Book of Chronicles and he found out that there was a good deed that Mordecai did and he was not honoured for it and the King ordered for Mordecai to be honoured and Haman was chosen by the King to do the honouring.
Esther 6: 10-14 10 Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. 11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour. 12 And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered. 13 And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. 14 And while they were yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.
The Lord God Almighty will open the Book of Remembrance on your behalf in Jesus name.
He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, He will anoint your head with oil and your cup will run over in Jesus name.
David was anointed King over Israel in the presence of his Father Jesse and his 7 Brothers that were rejected of the Lord, and they did not make a muff (a noise or protest)
Your enemies will be shocked at what the Lord will do for you, the Bible says God will do for you what will cause the ears of your enemy to tingle. They will cover their head in shame in Jesus name. Your horn the Lord God Almighty will exalt like that of the unicorn in Jesus name. (Psalm 92:10-11).
It was only during the second banquet that she exposed her enemy to the King and the gallows that Haman the enemy had prepared for Mordecai the Jew was used to hang him.
The pit your enemy has dug for you and your household will swallow your enemies, the net they lay in wait for you and your household, they will be caught in it, in the name of Jesus.
The snare of the fowler will catch the fowler himself/herself and your soul will be escaped like that of the bird in Jesus Mighty name.
Though hand join in hand together, it will not work. He said he created the waster and the destroyer, but no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
Lessons to learn from Queen Esther’s Strategies:
- She took her challenges to the Lord in prayers with fasting and prayer (note it was a different Esther that emerged in the palace courts).
- She rested in the Lord for wisdom and understanding: Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and he will direct your path.
- She presented her case in a very appealing way, she invited her husband and her enemy to a Banquet she prepared twice, they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach: a great woman once said, gone are the days when we fight to collect money from our husband, now we cook the food with our money and we collect the money back whilst we massage our husbands.
The sermon was delivered on March 31, 2019, on the occasion of the 2019 Mother’s Day.