Title Esther's Patriotism/Esther 4:12-17
Content Title: Esther's Patriotism/Esther 4: 12-17
Although the Babylonian captivity was over, the Jews who remained in Persia (Persia) without returning to Jerusalem experienced great tribulation. At this time, the character who appeared as a patriotic woman was Esther.
1. Esther Becomes Queen
1) Esther is a daughter of the tribe of Benjamin, and when her parents died, she became the adopted daughter of her cousin Mordecai (Esther 2:7).
2) In the third year of King Ahasuerus's accession to the throne, the king held a banquet for several servants and asked Queen Vashti to come to the banquet, but he disobeyed the king's order.
3) The angry king abolished Vashti from the throne and chose a new queen. The reason was that if the queen did not listen to the king, the people would imitate this and all the women would not obey the men.
4) At that time, Esther was chosen as a new queen because of her beautiful appearance and graceful appearance. This is because, until Esther became queen, there was the wits of her adoptive mother, Mordecai, the cooperation of Hegai, who was in charge of the court lady, and above all, God's plan and providence.
2. When I Die, I Die
1) As Esther was chosen as queen, her adoptive mother, Mordecai, was also selected as a high official of the Persian court (Esther 2:19). After that, when Haman became prime minister, the king made everyone kneel and bow down, but when Mordecai did not bow down to Haman, he realized that Haman was a Jew and plotted to destroy all the Jews in the country.
2) When Esther was chosen as queen, Mordecai asked Esther to hide her Jewish ancestors, but when the Jewish people faced an emergency, he warned Esther that she too would not be able to escape the Holocaust planned by Haman.
3) At that time, the habit of going to the king was dead if he went out when the king was not called. Esther decided that if she died for her people in an emergency, she would die, and she went out to the king to save her people earnestly.
4) The first thing to do for this was to fast and pray together with the Jews who came before God (4:16).
5) After that, Esther went to the king and escaped death with grace and succeeded in exposing Haman's plot. As a result, while trying to hang Mordecai on a pole, Haman made himself run on the pole. It was because Mordecai was remembered for his loyalty to the king (6:1-3).
3. Purim
1) Haman's plot to annihilate the Jews was thwarted through loyalty to Mordecai's people, Esther's courage, and the Jews' fasting prayers, and Israel was saved.
2) The 14th and 15th days of Adar, the day after the Jews were to be exterminated, were to be observed as a day to commemorate the salvation of the Jews (9:20-22), and it was called Purim.
3) On the 13th, the day the Jews were saved, they fasted as preparations, and on the 14th, around dawn, they gathered in the synagogue and read the entire book of Esther. Esther saved the nation by sacrificing and devoting her life.