Esther Part 3: Chp 5-6 - Esther goes before the king, the first
banquet is held, and Haman has a gallows built.
The intervention of the LORD God is seen throughout.
The book of Esther is distinctive because it is the only book in the
bible where the Lord is not mentioned by name, yet He is seen throughout the
book. Here are the links for Esther Part1 and Esther Part 2..
As review, In Esther Part 1, the queen Vashti is dethroned, young
maidens including Hadassah, also known as Esther, are brought to the palace,
and the king chooses Esther to be his new queen. Up until this time, Esther has
been living with her uncle Mordecai who asks Esther not to tell anyone that she
is Jewish. We will see later why this is very important. In Esther Part 2, Esther who is now queen, is
told by her uncle Mordecai that a decree has been written at Haman’s request,
for the destruction of all the Jewish people in the kingdom of Ahasuerus, just
because Mordecai will not bow down before Haman. Mordecai asks Esther to go
before the king and plead for the Jews, but Esther knows that to go before the
king without being summoned could lead to death, and she tells Mordecai this,
because she has not been summoned in the last 30 days. But he says to her Chp
4:14 “..who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as
this”. With this, Esther asks that
Mordecai gather all the Jews present in Shushan, and she asks that they fast
for three days and three nights. Esther and her maidens would do likewise Chp
4:16 “I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.” Esther is willing to risk her life to plead
for her people..as yet, the king does not know that Esther is Jewish.
