Newspaper Page Text
6
TLEEICK THROUGH THE BIBLE
9
"By G. CTTMPBELL MORGAN, Westminster Chapel, London, England.
Appearing Ebery Week During 1907. (Copyright American Serial Eights Applied Tor by The Golden Wge Publishing Co. All Eights Eeserbed.)
ESTHER- GOD AMID THE SHADOWS.
B. The Country. | 1
A. The King’s Court. Mordecai and the C. The King’s Court. The D * , The Countr y-
Ahasuerus, i. iii. Mourning Jews. Unnamed God iv 4 —viii Pur^m - T^e e " Conclusion, x.
iv I_3 ‘ ‘ joicing Jews. ix.
I. The Feast at Shu- I. Mordecai. 1-2 I. Esther and Mordecai. I. Poetic Retribu- Ahasuerus
shan. i. i. The City. iv. 4-17 tion. 1-19 and
i. The Aristocracy. ii. The King’s i. Her Enquiry. 4-9 Mordecai.
180 days. 1-4 Gate. ii. Her Message. 10-11
ii. The Democracy. Hi. His Answer. 12-14
7 days. 5-9 .• iv. Her Venture. 15-17 .
iii. Vashti. 10-22
11. The New Queen, ii. 11. The Jews 3 ||. Esther and the King. 11. The Feast of
i. The Counsel. 1-4 The Provinces. v. 1-8 Purim. 20-32
ii. Mordecai. 5-7 i. The Venture. 1
iii. Esther to the Pal- ii. The Issue. 2-8
ace. 8-18
iv. Mordecai saves KI. Haman. v. 9-14
the King. 19-23 L His Vanity. 9-12
ii. His Vexation. 13
111. Haman. iii. iii. The Gallows. 14
i. Mordecai’s Refu-
sal. 1-5 IV. The Sleepless King. vi.
ii. Haman’s Wrath. I L The Reading. 1, 2
6-15 ii. The Issue. 3-14
V. The Queen’s Banquet, vii.
i. The Petition. 1-6
ii. The King’s Wrath. 7, 8
iii. The Gallows. 9, 10
VI. Mordecai. viii.
1. His Elevation. 1, 2
ii. Esther’s Petition. 3
iii. The Issue. 4-17
HE events recorded in the book of
Esther occurred between the comple
tion of the temple and the mission of
Ezra. (Between Ezra vi and vii.) In
all likelihood the narrative, as we have
it, was taken directly from the Persian
records. This would account for much
that has created difficulty in the minds
T
I ■— I of some as to the presence of this book
in the canon of Scripture. The fact that the name
of God is not mentioned would be perfectly natural
if the historian were a Persian. That many things
are chronicled without apology, which are the cus
toms of a godless nation, would also be explained
thereby.
All this, however, makes the persons and teach
ing of the book the more valuable. It is a fragment
of profane history captured for sacred purposes.
The story reveals to such as have eyes to see, that
same principle of the overruling of God on behalf
of His people, which marks all their history. Here,
however, it is seen operating on their behalf in
a foreign land.
The principal value of the book is not its revela
tion of His care for individuals, though of course
that also is present. It is rather that of His pre
servation of the people as a whole, in an hour when
they were threatened with wholesale slaughter; and
moreover it emphasizes His care even for those who
had not returned with Zerubbabel. The feast of
Purim, observed even today, is the living link to the
events recorded, and historically sets the seal upon
the accuracy of the story. That feast celebrates,
not so much the defeat of Haman, or the advance
ment of Mordecai, as the deliverance of the people.
The book is pre-eminently dramatic, and is best
analyzed around the scenes. The king’s court.
Ahasuerus (Chs. i-iii); the Country, Mordecai and
the mourning Jews (ch. iv:i-3); the King’s Court,
the unnamed God (ch. iv:4-viii); the Country,
Purim. The rejoicing Jews (ch. i\); Conclusion
(ch. x).
A. THE KING’S COURT. AHASUERUS.
The first scene presented to us is that of a great
feast in the palace of the king. Tn the midst of it
the king commanded his queen Vashti to his pres
ence. The one redeeming feature in the revelation
ESTHER.
The Golden Age for May 23, 1907.
of the conditions at the court of Ahasuerus was
that of Vashti’s refusal to obey the command of
the king. She paid the price of her loyalty to her
womanhood in being deposed.
Mordecai’s action in the case of Esther is open
to question. His love for her was evident, and the
picture of him walking before the court of the wom
en’s house into which she had been taken indicated
his continued interest in her. His advice that she
should not betray her nationality was questionable,
as her position at the court of the king was one of
grave peril for a daughter of the covenant. Her
presence in the palace was part of that process by
which the overruling God preserved His people, and
frustrated their foe.
Haman is now introduced, a man haughty and
imperious, proud and cruel. His malice was stirred
against Mordecai, and also therefore against all his
people, and he made use of his influence with the
king to obtain authority practically to exterminate
the whole of them.
B. THE COUNTRY. MORDECAI AND THE
MOURNING JEWS.
The intention of Haman became known to Mor
decai, who at once took up his position outside the
king’s gate, and there raised a loud and bitter cry.
The royal proclamation filled the people through
the provinces with sorrow, and they mourned with
fasting and weeping, and wailing.
C. THE KING’S COURT. THE UNNAMED
GOD.
The news of this mourning reached Esther in the
royal palace, and she sent to make inquiries. Thus
between the extreme need of her people and the
king, she became a direct link. The custom and
law of the court forbade her approach to her lord
save at his command. The urgency of the case
appealed to her, however, and with splendid he
roism she ventured. Conscious of her need of
moral support, she asked that the people would fast
with her. There was a note of sacrifice and aban
donment in her words, “If I perish, I perish.”
Her venture was crowned with success. It might
have been quite otherwise, and the graciousness of
the king, notwithstanding Esther’s violation of the
law of the palace, was undoubtedly due to the dis
position of that God in whose hand are the ways
of kings, whether they will or not. Her request
was at first of the simplest. She invited the king
and Haman to a banquet. The overweening pride
of Haman was manifest in his gathering of his
friends, to whom he boasted of his riches, of his
advancement, and now of this last favor, that he
alone was invited to accompany the king to the
banquet of Esther. Acting upon the advice of wife
and friends, he committed the folly of making the
time of the banquet merry for himself by first erect
ing a gailows for Mordecai.
Tn the economy of God vast issues follow appar
ently trivial things. In the case of Ahasuerus a
sleepless night was the means through which God
moved forward for the preservation of His people.
To while away its hours, the records were read to
the king, and a deed of Mordecai therein recorded
led to the hasty and strange happenings which filled
the heart of Haman with anger and terror. Mor
decai was lifted from obscurity to the most conspic
uous position in the kingdom. Events moved rapid
ly forward. By the way of the banquet Haman
passed to the gallows. It was a fierce and terri
ble judgment, and yet characterized by poetic jus
tice.
D. THE COUNTRY. PURIM. THE REJOICING
JEWS.
The peril of the Hebrew people was not yet how
ever averted. The royal proclamation had gone
forth, that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month they should be exterminated. By the consti
tution no royal proclamation could be reversed.
The king granted Mordecai to write and sign let
ters to his people, permitting them to arm and de
fend themselves. The fateful day arrived, but it
was one on which the changed conditions in the
case of Haman and Mordecai were revealed
throughout the whole of the provinces.
In memory of the deliverance the feast of Purim
was established. According to Jewish tradition,
“all the feasts shall cease in the days of the Mes
siah, except the feast of Purim.” It is a remark
able thing that while there have been breaks in
the observance of the other great feasts, and some
of them have beeen practically discontinud, this has
been maintained.
CONCLUSION.
Whatever view we may hold of this book of
Esther, it is certain that Jewish leaders have treat
ed it as an exposition of the method by which
God wrought deliverance for Elis people in a time
of peril, even while they were in exile.
The Model Dad.
Lives there a dad with soul so dead
Who never to his son hath said:
“When I was your age I would run
To do the things I had to do;
I never till my work was done
Found any pleasure to pursue;
My parents never had to scold,
And every rule they ever made
For me was honestly obeyed;
I never frowned and never told
A falsehood when I was a boy;
I gave my parents daily joy
By doing well and being kind,
By being truthful and polite;
Aly speech was proper and refined,
My heart contained no room for spite!”
If such there be, go mark him well,
For he’s a bird! But none such dwell
. I pon this e.orth —unknown, unsung,
;Such wond,er<s all die very young’.
—Chicago Record-Herald.