Welcome back for our next journey through the Bible meeting the Women of the Bible this week we meet Esther.
This journey so far we have met Eve, Rachel & Leah, Rahab, Ruth and Deborah
Our Women in the Bible series is a journey through the Bible meeting some of the Women of the Bible we will be joining our own women from the Young @ Heart Ladies Groip for this journey
Esther. Book of Esther
I am Esther. My name means ‘star’. I am Jewish. My parents died so I had to live with my cousin Mordechai in Persia. King XERXES was on the throne. He needed a Queen. It was decided that every girl had to come to the palace for 1 year and get beauty treatments and then at the end of that year, the king would select a new queen from those girls. I was one of the girls. Mordechai told me not to tell anyone that I was a Jew. Finally the year was up and it was my turn to see the king. I walked up to the throne and bowed low to the king. The king immediately made me his new queen.
One day when Mordechai was at the palace, he heard of a plot to kill the king. He told me as quickly as he could and I told the king that Mordechai had heard this. “Thank him for me, ” said the king. Time passed. Haman became prime minister. Everyone bowed before Haman except Mordechai. So Haman decided to have him killed. Then he decided to kill all Jews. Haman told the King that there were a people in his land that would soon cause trouble. Let there be a decree issued to destroy them and the King agreed. Mordechai gave my maid a copy of the decree. “No one knows you are a Jew.” He said,” Perhaps God sent you to the palace, made you queen for when your people need you. Talk to the king and save our people. “So I told him, “Get all the Jews together and fast for three days. I will do the same. Then I will go before the King. Three days later, I put on my finest clothes and walked to the throne and the King held out the gold sceptre. I invited the King and Haman to a banquet that day.
At the banquet, the King said to me, “Tell me what you want and I will give it to you.” “Come with Haman to another banquet tomorrow. Then I’ll tell you what I want.” I said. When he got home, Haman bragged “I am the most powerful man next to the king, but it means nothing when Mordecai refuses to bow to me.” His wife, said, “Make a gallows seventy-five feet high and tomorrow ask the king for permission to hang him!” Haman instructed the building of gallows the very next day.
That same night, the King couldn’t sleep. So, he read the historical records and found the story of the plot to kill him and Mordecai who saved his life. When he discovered this had not been rewarded, He called for Haman. “Haman, what should I do to honour a man that truly pleases me?” Haman thought the king was taking about him and said, “Send the king’s robe, the king’s horse, and the king’s crown, to one of the king’s most noble princes, and let him dress the man in your robes, put your crown upon his head, and lead him throughout the city on your horse, shouting to all the people, ‘This is how the king honours those that truly please him!’ ”
The King was so pleased. “Excellent, Haman! Take these robes of mine and get my horse. Take my crown and do as you have said to Mordecai!” Reluctantly, Haman did as he had been told.
At the second banquet, the king said “What is it that you want, my Queen?” So I replied, “Spare my life and the life of all Jews. I and all my people are to be killed.” The King became very angry. “Who would dare touch you or any of your relatives?” “Haman is our enemy.” I said. He was so angry, he stormed out to the palace gardens. Haman threw himself on me begging for his life. Just then, the king entered. “You would dare touch the Queen?”. An aide to the king said, “Your Majesty, Haman was constructing a 75 foot gallows to use on Mordechai, the man who saved you. It stands in Haman’s courtyard.”The king was furious. “Use it on Haman,” he ordered. And they did. The King appointed Mordechai prime minister and reversed the decree against the Jews.
Activity
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