Reading Assignment

• Esther 1-2

Things To Consider

1. There are a lot of banquets in the book of Esther.
2. This bureaucracy was extensive and this banquet would have shown that and could very well have been used to plan military strategies.
3. Persian banquets might have 15,000 guests – this is no small party.
4. The queen threw her own feast as well for the women.
5. We don't know exactly the reason but refusal of the King in a public setting was a massive breach of royal etiquette.
6. Vashti is deposed but not killed for the son she has with the king will eventually take the throne.
7. The next idea is to replace the queen with a new one.
8. All the details are worked out for the way these women would identified and organized.
9. Then we get to the point – God's chosen people the Jews.
10. Mordecai and his orphaned cousin Esther, the beautiful.
11. Esther was chosen but she did not let people know that she was a Jew per her instructions.
12. The king likes her so much that he makes her the new queen and to celebrate nobody has to pay taxes.
13. Small important detail at the close of chapter 2 – Mordecai uncovers a plot, the king is saved and it is written down.