It's Purim!

Though I don't celebrate Purim (I'm not Jewish), the book of Esther is my favorite story in the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. I love the poetic justice throughout the book...I think it shows, among other things, that God has a sense of humor.

Esther is a fairly unusual book in that God is not explicitly mentioned even once. However, there are so many "coincidences" in the book that it's pretty obvious that God is at work "behind the scenes."

Probably the most amusing part of the story is when King Ahasuerus/Xerxes "just happens" to have insomnia, so he has his servant read the chronicles of his reign to him. The servant "just happens" to pick the scroll/tablet which records the account of Mordecai the Jew (cousin of Queen Esther) who "just happened" to overhear an assassination plot and sent word to Esther, thus saving the king's life. When the king hears that Mordecai received no reward he calls for whoever is in the court to come to him. It "just happens" to be Haman (the original Adolph Eichmann) who is there to ask the kings permission to hang Mordecai on a 75 foot tall gallows. Before he can make his request, King Xerxes asks him how he should reward "the man whom the king desires to honor." Haman, of course, assumes it is himself and comes up with a grand scheme of dressing the man in royal garb, sitting him on the royal horse, and having "one of the king's most noble princes" lead him through the streets shouting "thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor." Of course, Haman ends up having to do this for Mordecai, the man he hates most in the world...classic!

And of course, Haman later ends up being hanged on his own 75 foot gallows once Queen Esther (who "just happens" to be Jewish), at the risk of her own life, pleads for the lives of her people. King Xerxes was none to pleased with Haman for planning to wipe out his queen's people and when he "just happened" to walk back into the room just as Haman (who was pleading for his life) "just happened" to look like he was assaulting Queen Esther, that was just the last straw.

I think the point of the whole book is summed up in 4:14 where Mordecai is trying to convince Esther to go plead for the life of her people even though appearing before the king uninvited could bring a death sentence. He says, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?" God is going to accomplish His will no matter what. We need to decide whether we are going to do the part that He has placed before us or not.