THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #190 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #171
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3876
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #190
THE LIFE OF MOSES #171
MOSES AT MT.SINAI#70
THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES ( Part 29)
THE CROWN OF ESTHER
“The king loved Esther more than all the women and she won grace and favor in his sight, more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her Queen instead of Vashti.”
(Esther 2:17)
Esther, the adopted daughter of a Jewish exile living in “Shushan” (Susa), was introduced to the Persian king because of her extraordinary beauty. This was King Ahasuerus, who had decided to set aside his first wife, Queen Vashti. Esther “won his favor and devotion,” and the king “set the royal crown on her head” (Esther 2:17).
But her crown did not signify power in the physical sense. She spent most of her time indoors in the queen's quarters of the Persian palace. Nor was she consulted when the edict went out to massacre her people.
Yet she is regarded as a national heroine in Israel where the Feast of Purim is celebrated every year in honour of her memory as a saviour of her people from mass genocide.
So what did her crown represent? Was it merely decorative?
The Feast of Purim is a Jewish holiday in celebration of the deliverance of the Jews as recorded in the book of Esther. It is also known as the Feast of Lots (Purim being the Hebrew word for “lots”). The feast is not mentioned in the New Testament, although scholars believe the unnamed feast of John 5:1 could be Purim.
In the Book of Esther, Haman, prime minister to the Persian King Ahasuerus, is insulted by the Jewish leader Mordecai, who refused to bow to Haman. Haman convinces the king that all Jews are rebellious and must be destroyed. To set the date of the genocide, Haman uses lots, or purim. Unbeknownst to Haman, Ahasuerus’s queen, Esther, is a Jew and Mordecai’s niece. Esther appeals to Ahasuerus for her people’s lives. The king cannot revoke the decree to attack the Jews, but he does issue a new decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves. As a result, Haman and his family are executed, and the Jews kill 75,000 would-be attackers. To memorialize the victory, Mordecai institutes the Feast of Purim to be celebrated every year (Esther 9:26-32).
Her spiritual crown by God is even a better legacy. Her Jewish name Hadassah means the Myrtle Tree - a beautiful perennial.
Here is my research into the Jewish background of her real name:
1. Why was she called Hadassah? Because the righteous are called myrtles. As it states (Zechariah 1:8), “And he was standing among the myrtles [the righteous prophets Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah].”
2. Just as a myrtle has a sweet smell and a bitter taste, so too Esther was good and listened (“sweet”) to the righteous Mordechai, and was adverse (“bitter”) to the wicked Haman.
3. The name Esther (Heb. אסתר) is derived from the Hebrew word hester (Heb. הסתר), which means “hiddenness,” and corresponds to a spiritual plane representing hidden Godliness.
4. Her name
represents the self-sacrifice she displayed in order to save the Jewish nation. A righteous woman, she brought Godliness down into the physical world, where Godliness is concealed.
5. Hadassah was the name of Queen Esther, who was not afraid to live among non-Jews and to show an example of how a Jew must be proud of his or her inheritance, and to live everyday life in the same direction, with happiness and much success.
To me the Crown of Esther signifies the inner nobility of her soul, her righteous character.
She thus had both external beauty and internal beauty which giftings she used for God's glory.
And she was the right person at the right place and time - who willing to give her life as a living sacrifice for others.
Mordecai delivered these famous words to her : “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
At this revelation, Esther’s fear turns to faith, and she accepts her divine purpose: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me,” she tells Mordecai. “Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:15–16).
On the third day, “Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance” (Esther 5:1). The king receives Esther, and the prayers of God’s people are answered. Esther lives, the evil plot is overthrown, Mordecai is honored, Haman hangs on the gallows, the Jewish people are saved, and the Jews establish the Feast of Purim to commemorate God’s great deliverance forever.
With the declaration, “If I perish, I perish,” Esther marks the pivotal moment of her trusting submission to the will of God. Her surrender resonates in these words expressed by the apostle Paul: “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).
Let us say like Paul, “My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord” (Acts 20:24, NLT), and like Esther, “If I perish, I perish!”
