King Xerxes of Persia was the world’s most powerful monarch who ruled the Persian Empire around 486 B.C., which is where he appears on the Biblical Timeline with World History. He was the son of the former Persian king Darius I. He is traditionally considered to be the Persian King Ahasuerus referred to in the Biblical story of Esther.
During the third year of Xerxes reign, he held a huge festival so that he could display all of his wealth to the high ranking governors and officials of his empire. King Xerxes also had a wife named Queen Vashti, and she was holding a celebration for the women of the empire. As the ceremonies progressed, King Xerxes summoned Queen Vashti so that he could show off her beauty to the people in attendance. Instead of appearing before the king the queen refused to listen to her husband’s request. Since she was disobedient to her King, Queen Vashti was forever banished from his presence.
King Xerxes had to send out a decree that women were not to follow her example. He did this to avoid civil unrest that could have resulted from massive domestic abuse and chaos within the empire. This story sets the background for the rise of an extremely beautiful woman named Esther and her godly cousin Mordecai. God had decided to allow the people of Judah to go into captivity to Babylon because of their sins, and Mordecai was a young boy when this incident had taken place. Mordecai had an uncle named Abihail who had a daughter named Hadassah. Now Hadassah was an extremely beautiful young woman, and she was also called Esther. Mordecai had taken her into his home after her father Abihail and her mother had passed away. Esther grew up secure inside of Mordecai’s care, and she also learned about the importance of her Jewish heritage from him as well. The people all over the region of Susa knew about Esther’s beauty. One day King Xerxes decided to find a new queen, and he had appointed agents inside of each province for the purpose of making them responsible for finding beautiful virgin females to bring to the king. Well, this activity took place over a period before they came across Esther. Once Esther was chosen for this task, Mordecai reminded her that she must never tell the king or his servants about her Jewish identity.
Esther eventually won the heart of the king and his servants, and she was selected to become the new queen of Persia. Mordecai held a position inside of the king’s palace, and he went their every day to perform his duties. One day he overheard a conspiracy between two of the king’s guards who wanted to assassinate Xerxes. Mordecai alerted the king and the guards were found to be treasonous and were eliminated. King Xerxes appreciated Mordecai’s information, but he didn’t reward him. Meanwhile a powerful prince within the Persian Empire named Haman had become the second most powerful ruler in the land. King Xerxes told the people that they should bow down to him whenever they see him. Everybody agreed to this decree except for Mordecai. Whenever Haman came into the palace, every official would bow except for Mordecai and his defiance made Haman extremely angry. Haman decided to devise a plot to not only kill Mordecai for his defiance but the rest of the Jewish people as well. Haman was an Agagite, and his people were old enemies of the Jews. Prime Minister Haman influenced King Xerxes to kill off a group of people within his empire that were different than the rest of the people because they would not obey the laws of the land. Prime Minister Haman had cast lots before he approached the king with this request. Prime Minister Haman cast lots so that he could determine the best day to carry out the king’s decree once it was approved. The king agreed to his plan even though he didn’t know that the people were Jewish. Prime Minister Haman also decided to build a 75-foot tall hanging platform for Mordecai.
While this platform was being constructed King Xerxes had read through his royal records and realized that he never rewarded Mordecai for saving his life from the assassination plot. He summoned Haman and asked him what he should do to honor a man for his service. Prime Minister Haman naturally thought he was talking about himself and told him to dress the man in royal garments and to lead him through the streets on his royal horse. King Xerxes told Prime Minister Haman to do this for Mordecai and Haman was humiliated by the experience. Mordecai found out what Prime Minister Haman had done and began to despair. He knew that he had to appeal to Esther to save the people.
Esther wanted to save the people, but there was one major problem. She just couldn’t go into the presence of the king; she had to be invited otherwise she might lose her life. Mordecai had to convince her that if she didn’t follow through with these actions that God was going to get another savior to take her place and that she would be killed. Esther agreed and fasted and went in to see the king. The king honored her presence, and she requested a two-day banquet with the king and Prime Minister Haman. On the second day of the banquet, Queen Esther revealed to the king what had happened, and Haman was hanged on the pole he designed for Mordecai. The Jewish people managed to avoid being exterminated by Haman’s sympathizers, and Mordecai was elected to his position. God used Queen Esther and her cousin Prime Minister Mordecai to save the Jewish people from being exterminated while under the rule of the Persian Empire. The Festival of Purim was established by Mordecai to remind Jewish people how they were saved by Queen Esther and Mordecai from extermination. Biblical References: The book of Esther in the Bible contains the whole entire story of Esther and Mordecai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther
http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/christian-ministries/bible-heroes/mordecai.html
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/1348/jewish/Mordechai-and-Esther.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Esther_haram.jpg
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Thank you, for this information. It has truly helped me to get a full understanding of the book of Esther.
Thank you now i under stand Gods grace for His people. As Christians today we are to look up to Jesus our mediator of a new covenant.
Dear Sirs,
Can you give the details of Queen Esther’s sons/daughters please.
Glad to have stumbled across this. Thank you. I have sons named Mordecai and Xerxes.
Dear Sirs,
This book of Ester clearly spells out that the reward for a honest act will take time and it will be done in an appropriate context causing distress to the enemies of good act
Does anybody know the dates when Esther and Mordecai died?
I would be interested to know if anyone can tell me what happened to Mordecai ?How old was he when he died? What year?
I came across a good book, “The Mystery of Esther – God’s Prophetic Plan”. The Book of Esther does seem to be prophetic similar to The Book of Ruth.
The ancient historian Herodotus notes in his “Histories” Xerxes’ first wife Amestris also in the later years kept her position, she was a daughter of one of Darius I’s fellows in arms.
This rules out Xerxes as the king Ahasuerus of the book of Esther.
The only kings after Xerxes ruling from India to Ethiopia as mentioned in the book of Esther are Artaxerxes I and III.
Nehemiah’s major position within his court and his queen influencing him to order the resumption of the building of the Jerusalem Temple (Nehemiah 2:6) suggest Artaxerxes I.
This is a decent summary, but it doesn’t fully match up with the Biblical record.
The following sentence and the entire paragraph which follows it are in the wrong sequence: “Prime Minister Haman also decided to build a 75-foot tall hanging platform for Mordecai.”
The proper sequence is:
1. The plot to kill all the Jews happens first
2. then Mordechai is distraught
3. then Esther is informed (and the Jews in Shusan fast),
4. then Esther proposes the banquet which the King and Haman attend
5. after day 1 of the banquet, Haman is so angered by Mordechai that he orders the gallows built
6. The sleepless king realizes that he hasn’t rewarded Mordechai
7. He consults with Haman who had shown up early in the morning to get permission to hang Mordechai
8. Haman has to honor Mordechai publicly
9. Haman is exposed on day two of the banquet
10. A second law is established for the Jews to protect themselves on the days of their previously scheduled destruction.
There is also some debate about whether it is Xerxes I or Artaxerses I that is the Bible “Ahasuerus”
More can be read here: https://www.andrews.edu/sem/inministry/uploads/2014coursesyllabi/esther_and_history-shea.pdf
I have a ? Esther 2:5 says Mordecai was taken in the second captivity J’kims around 597 bc – if Esther was during Xerxes that would put her around 100 years old – winning a beauty contest…I know all things are possible with God but..
Perhaps is the “who” of Esther 6:1 is not referring to Mordecai, but to Shimei or Kish?
Correction: Esther 2:6