Est. 8: Jews Fight Back

Esther 8:11 "The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies."

So Haman's out of the picture. Which I thought would mean Xerxes would overturn the edict. That's just the way it is in every movie ever. The bad guy gets killed, and everything goes back to the way it was before he was in power. Not so here. Esther still has to go in and plead with Xerxes to put an end to Haman's evil plan. 

But he doesn't. I don't know why, and I'm not familiar with ancient Persian politics, but I would guess it was a sign of weakness and indecision to change one's mind on an issue. I can't imagine that happening today... So the one thing Xerxes can do is issue another edict. This one gave the Israelites in the land the ability to assemble and protect themselves when they were under attack. The day the attacks on the jews were set to begin was the 13th day of the 12th month...Adar. That was also the day the new edict said the Jews were allowed to defend themselves. Makes sense.

So the Jews rejoice, because God is on their side, and they won't be killed for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than Mordecai wouldn't bow to one nutjob. Whats interesting to note is that many people from other nationalities converted to Judaism because of this. They were so afraid of being killed by Jews, that they became Jews. I can't imagine another religious dynamic that works like this today.

Est. 3: Haman's Jewnocide

Esther 3:13 "Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and little children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods."

So Xerxes promotes this guy Haman, giving him the highest position of the nobles in all the land. I don't know if it was because Haman was the guy who hung the conspirators or whatever, or if he was involved at all. Xerxes also issues a decree that everyone had to bow to Haman. I find it somewhat interesting that with credit given Mordecai for uncovering the plot, the king doesn't give Mordecai the same sort of honor. Mordecai ends up being the one guy who refuses to bow to Haman. Of course this doesn't go over well with Haman. 

It wasn't enough to just want to kill Mordecai for his shows of disrespect, Haman seizes this opportunity to blame the Jews nationwide for being a people who refuse to obey the kings laws...they have these weird customs, and apparently only worship one God. A God who is no king of men. Haman isn't recorded as telling Xerxes that he is referring to the Jews. But insubordination of anyone is enough to freak Xerxes out to the point that he gives carte blanche to Haman to eliminate this threat completely. 

I don't know how sneaky Haman is being, but it appears he is not being fully honest with Xerxes, who, until this point doesn't appear to have any specific beef with the Jews. We do know that Mordecai believes that Esther would be distasteful to Xerxes for being a Jew, but that probably wouldn't be cause to ride along with genocidal plans.

So the plot goes forward, and dispatches are sent out under Xerxes' name to annihilate anyone of Jewish ancestry and to plunder their land. Celebrating their plans, Xerxes and Haman sit down to drink. I didn't know why the last verse mentions the city of Susa was "bewildered," but I think its probably because they don't know why they now have to kill their Jewish neighbors and take their stuff. That would be kind of weird. It would be hard for me to kill my neighbor just because the leader now tells me too. Meh, when in Persia...

Est. 1: Queen Vashti Sacked

Esther 1:19 "Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she."

Three years into his reign, Xerxes, the king of Persia, gives a huge party. For 180 days, he displays his wealth. That's six months of showing off for those of you keeping score at home. While displaying my own personal wealth would take probably six minutes. At the end of this display, he has a banquet for seven days, and everyone in the kingdom was invited, and they all could drink as they pleased. There was also stuff for the women to do, at Queen Vashti's own personal party.

This is quite the soiree. But it was all fun until the seventh day when drunken King Xerxes wanted to show off the beautiful Vashti to everyone. When Vashti refused to appear, Xerxes freaked and had her deposed. No reason is given for her desertion, but I would surmise she was probably tired of being looked upon as a trophy. Just palace decoration. I know I'd get sick of that. 

Anyway, in addition to Vashti being canned, the king issues a decree throughout all the land to replace her. This was done so that men could retain their place in power in their marriages, and so that their wives would not disrespect them in the way Vashti dissed Xerxes.

Ezra 4: Stop Building

Ezra 4:15 "In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place of rebellion from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed."

The people in the area saw the rebuilding of the temple going on. They were described as enemies, so right away, that sort of sets the stage for how this interaction was going to go. They wanted to help with the reconstruction of the temple, claiming that they had been worshipping the LORD, and wanted to assist with the construction of His temple.

And they probably did worship the LORD. Among many other gods. Zerubabbel and Jeshua responded by saying it would be them alone who would rebuild the temple. One, because God was their God. Second, and probably to add a big of gravitas to an unbelieving group of foreigners, because Cyrus said so. Sometimes you need that extra bit of authority in there. As long as Cyrus was in charge, the foreigners, the enemies made it their business to inhibit the temple's construction, lodging complaints with Xerxes, the king of Persia, and then Artaxerxes. Some guys named Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and others wrote a letter to Artaxerxes, having been frustrated by the jews who would not let them help.

It's all political. Not militaristic. The route that the foreigners go in the letter to King Art talks about how if Israel is allowed to do their thing, it's basically going to cost the king a lot of money. He'd lose out on the tribute. So they appeal to his greedy side. They don't want to see the king "dishonored." Snakes.

What I find most noteworthy about the letter is in verse 15. They talk about the city being a rebellious one...troublesome, claiming that is why the city was destroyed. Very interesting. Israel was rebellious. Israel was troublesome. And these were the reasons why Jerusalem was no more. But not because Israel was rebellious or troublesome to their neighbors. They rebelled against God. It was when Israel behaved and was obedient that they were problems to their neighbors.

Of course Artaxerxes takes the bait and brings force to Israel to make them stop with this crazy building. And it took until Darius took the throne in Persia to get started again. We'll have to find out why. Artaxerxes doesn't bother to find out why Cyrus made his proclamation, instead listening only to his selfishness and greed.