Day 337: Esther 4-6 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebobledapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (dramatic music) Hey, Emily, welcome to day 337. We are diving into Esther chapters four, five and six. Today on the podcast, I'm super excited about it. The plot thickens, okay? I mean, it's gonna get pretty good. Like by the end, the plot is like, it's gonna leave us on a cliffhanger. I feel like all the section breaks, even at the end of chapter three yesterday, just left us on a massive cliffhanger. Like when you get to the end of chapter three, it just says this. The couriers went out, spurred on by the king's command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa, the king in Haman, set down a drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered, okay? Just like the edict has gone out that like the Jewish people are going to die. On what? On a single day, the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods, copy of the text and the edict was to be issued as a law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that they would be ready for that day.

It's like, golly, by the time we get to the end of chapter three, it just feels like there's no hope, like this is terrible. And then today, we're gonna leave off on another cliffhanger, all right? So speaking of cliffhangers and just the unfolding drama of the story of Esther, if you haven't done the reading, I want you to stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, talk about action-packed reading today, Esther chapters four, five, and six, but if you haven't done the reading, we're gonna dive in a context clues, okay? And we've got a literal drama, like this story would have been read out loud during the festival of Perim, and the audience would have participated, okay? The audience would have been encouraged to cheer whenever Esther is mentioned and boo, or bang together stones, not clap, bang together stones, okay? Or make some kind of loud noise when Haman is mentioned. The idea being everyone is making so much noise, you can't hear his name being said. So that would mean you have to listen to every word of the story, except Haman. So let's, I just wanna kind of recap this really, really quick, okay, this book, the Book of Esther, okay? If you were reading the original Tanakh, okay? Or the Hebrew Bible, you would see that song of songs

starts a new grouping of books in the third section of scripture called the Ketibeen. This grouping is called the Megilot or five scrolls. These are the five books that are grouped together because they are connected to Jewish festivals and was traditionally read at those feasts, okay? I think I said this on day one of song of songs, but in the event that I did not, okay? Song of songs would have been read during the Passover. Ruth would have been read during Pentecost. Lamentations, which my wife did an amazing job. Come on, let me know in the comments if you enjoyed. Tia, walking us through the Book of Lamentations, would have been read on the 9th of Av. Esther would have been read at Perim, and then Ecclesiastes would have been read at the Feast of Tabernacles, okay? So there are festivals that go along with this, okay? So one of the really, really, really cool things about this is that it's a festival book, a festival of celebration. It's a party. Notice how many banquets there are in the Book of Esther. In the same way you can imagine the sombre, tear-eyed reading of Lamentations on the 9th of Av. We should be able to imagine the joy-filled laughter and fun of the story of Esther being read on the Feast of Perim. Imagine cheering when Esther's name is mentioned, and then boo, when Haman's name is mentioned. It would have been something that was designed

for crop participation. So not only is the book dramatic, but there would have been dramatic retellings of the story during the festival of Perim. And so I want, you know, as the best of our ability to kind of read it with that context, okay? Another just kind of context clue, okay? Is that the Book of Esther was really debated. The canonicity of the book was hotly debated for a couple of different reasons, four big ones. Number two, there's no references to the Torah, covenant, temple, coastal food, etc. For a Jewish book, it's incredibly un-Jewish. Third, there's a celebration of revenge, the slaughter of the 75,000, Esther personally requesting the execution of Haman's sons all seem morally and ethically contrasted to scripture as a whole in the message of scripture. The Jewishness of Esther Mordecai, they're more ethnically Jewish than they are covenant or religiously Jewish, okay? Which is at odds with the scriptural idea of what the remnant is supposed to even be. So to put it bluntly, Esther's just an awkward book, but it's the lack of mention of Yahweh that actually raised the most questions. And so there are some early canon lists where Esther's not included, okay? And some early canon lists that we have. Even Martin Luther had a lot of hustling toward the book, but he also didn't want James the Bible either, and James is a fantastic book of the Bible. So calm down, Martin Luther, okay? Now there's a reason that eventually rabbis got to the place of, no, no, no, Esther should a hundred percent be a part of the Jewish canon, and that is actually because of this idea called the Hidden Hand in Esther. This is due to an unusual spelling of Jews in six places throughout the book of Esther. The normal Jewish word for Jew, Yehudai in English, Y-E-H-U-D-I, literally of Judah.

Okay? The word Jew means of Judah. It appears 32 times in this book. But on six occasions, it is spelled completely different, almost as if it's being misspelled. With an extra Y-O-D, okay? This is strange because Y-O-D also means hand. So the rabbis interpreted this to mean that this is the hidden hand of Yahweh, protecting the Jews even when he cannot be directly seen. So these passages would be chapter 4 verse 7, chapter 8 verse 1, chapter 8 verse 7, chapter 8 verse 13, chapter 9 verse 15, chapter 9 verse 18, six moments where there's an extra Y-O-D in the word Yehudai, okay, Jews, okay? That there's an extra Y-O-D, Y-O-D being hand. This is the hidden hand. It's almost like there's a hand hiding in plain sight. And 4-7, the exact money Haman paid to destroy the Jews, so God is aware of the exact details of Haman's plot. Haman's house is given to Esther, God is behind Esther's defeat of Haman. 8-7, Haman is hanged because he tries to destroy the Jews, God defeats the enemies of the Jews. 8-13, doesn't eat it, allowing the Jews to defend themselves, God gives his people the ability to defend themselves from their enemies. 9-15, the Jews in Sousa kill 300 of their enemies, God brings victory to his people. And then 9-18, the Jews in Sousa celebrate their survival. God has saved his people and they rejoice. The idea is then that even though he cannot be seen, Yahweh that is, he is saving, he is the saving hand behind the rise of Esther and the saving of his people, okay? So wanted to get our minds wrapped around these two contextual ideas. That A, there would have been crowd participation, that there would have been a festival story that would have been read, and then 2, the canonicity of the book was really, really debated, but what has become like a reason to keep it out actually became a reason to further investigate and then keep it in because of the hidden hand of Yahweh.

All right, I'm going to give you five nerdy nuggets in the time that we have remaining, okay? Interestingly enough, this might just be the first ever book to refer to the Jews to the people of God as Jews. In the entire rest of the Old Testament, up into this point, they have been called Israelites, children of Israel, people of Israel, people of Judah. Now they are Jews, the Jews. This change is probably due to the destruction of both the lands of Israel, North and South, so that ethnicity was no longer connected to the land itself. You could be a Jew wherever you lived. The name itself comes from the fact that the tribe of Judah, plus Benjamin, Simeon, Levi, and remnants of the North alone survived the exiles. So all God's people are now of Judah. So therefore, Jews, okay? Well, Mordecai says to Esther is profound for lots of reasons, but we'll talk about them here now and when we get to our timeless truth. But this is Esther chapter four, we're gonna start reading in verse 13. Do not think that because you are in the King's house, you are alone of all the Jews will escape. So first of all, you're not guaranteed safety just 'cause you live with the King. If the Jewish people are at risk of being extinguished, exterminated, killed, then you're gonna come face to face with that reality as well. Don't let your privilege fool you, Esther. Verse 14, for if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.

I love that, I love that. Hey, like that's right now, I'm planting a church and I'll say this boldly, God will provide for our church, like God's gonna provide all the resources that we need. Now, whether or not you get to participate in that provision is a whole other story, which is essentially like what I love telling people is like God's gonna provide, he's gonna do it. As I fundraise, I love telling people, oh my gosh, we're gonna raise $1.5 million for this church plan. The only question is, will you get to be a part of it? That's it, and that's really what Mordecai says, says, for if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish and who knows but that you have come to your role position for such a time as this. Who knows, maybe, maybe you're not just a queen, just to enjoy being the queen, maybe you're the queen for such a time as this. And man, that's a challenge. Like, that doesn't sound desperate. Mordecai's not begging Esther for anything. That is a masterclass on how to actually persuade someone to be on your side, not manipulate them, not force them to do something they don't wanna do, but persuasion, manipulation and persuasion are not the same thing. Mordecai doesn't guilt trip her.

Mordecai lays it out pretty clearly. God's gonna deliver as people. Like A, you're not guaranteed safety. B, God's gonna do this, whether through you or someone else. And B, what if, what if you have your influence or your, the authority that you have or the access or the proximity to the king that you have for this very reason? Very, very much so Joseph, right? He was in a government position so that the saving of many lives could happen. That's Joseph's theology. He's like, I've come to this position, not because my brothers do me in a slavery, but because God wanted to save people. That's a good perspective, man. That's a good healthy perspective. Family, the weight is over. My brand new book, "Crushing Chaos," is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally, today, I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life,

I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Next nerdy nugget. Exerxes is gonna ask Esther what she wants multiple times. Chapter five, verse three, then the king said, what is it, queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given to you. And then again, five, verse six, as they were drinking wine, notice how it's they who are drinking wine. The king asked again, asked Esther again. Now, what is your petition? It will be given to you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, does Esther respond? No, Esther says, my petition and request is this. If the king regards me with favor, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition to fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to a banquet, I'll prepare for them, then I will answer the king's question. So you can hear it in Esther's like voice. Okay. And I want you to see this in the plot. Esther has asked two times what do you want?

And at any point, she could have said, I need you to help me save my people. Like I'm Jewish. Okay. And she doesn't. She keeps kicking the can down the street and ultimately what has to happen. God has to get involved. Okay. So my fourth nerdy nugget is that God gets involved. King goes to sleep that night. Xerxes goes to sleep chapter six, verse one, that night, the king could not sleep. So he ordered the book of the chronicles, the records of his reign to be brought in and read to him. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed to the king's officers who guarded the doorway, probably Unix who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. Okay. So now the king realizes I've got to honor Mordecai. He saved my life. And so he brings Haman in and is like, hey, what should I do to someone if I really want to honor them? Haman thinks that the king's talking about him. So he describes what he would want, but then he's told, go make that happen for Mordecai. And then everything that tables have turned. Oh, how the tables have turned. And so my fifth nerdy nugget is divine reversal that because Esther kind of drags her feet to do what she said she's going to do, the Lord is now the one who is moving chess pieces around the chessboard and we get a divine reversal. There's a lot like Nathan approaching David. Hey, what should be done for a man who's done blank and then David answers and then Nathan hits him with you are the man, the same kind of contrappasso, but with Haman and Mordecai. And if you don't know what contrappasso means, it's a great word. You should Google it, contrappasso, contra C-O-N-T-R-A-P-A-S-O. It's from a book called Dante's Inferno based on an idea called contrappasso.

You should look it up. Let me know in the comments if you looked up contrappasso and what it means. And do you think it's fitting for what happens here between Haman and Mordecai? Let's get into our Thomas truth. I think that what Mordecai ends up saying to Esther is like, hey, God is going to deliver. Like God's going to bring relief and deliverance for his people. The real question is, do you want to be a part of what God's up to? Yes or no. And I think that that should be a Thomas truth for all of us. None of us should beg people to be a part of what we're doing, especially if you're in church. We shouldn't, you know, chase people down to be a part. No, let's like, you got to let people know, hey, God is up to revival. Hey, God is up to healing people. God is like building his church. That's like what God is doing. And the real question is like, do you just want to be a part of what God's doing? It's really it. And this is going to happen with it without you. That's a good frame. It's a confident framework, I think, to help people. Because if you're desperate for people to be involved in what you're doing, then really what you're communicating is that I just need people. And I've built a couple of thriving fruitful ministries at this point in my life. And I didn't do it by begging people to be involved. I did it by getting God involved. And then with clarity and confidence being able to communicate to people, hey, I've got proof that God's up to this. And the real question is, do you want to be as well? And that moves you from a place of like begging to a place of attracting.

And I think that's good, like for whatever you're doing, whether it's ministry or whether it's not a ministry, I think that it's good to be able to communicate with confidence. Like, oh, no, I think this is a winning product. This is a winning business. This is whatever you're doing, not like, I'm going to win one way or the other. The only question is, are you going to be involved? I think that's not just true for Mordecai or Haman or Esther. I think that's true for you and I today to recruit people and attract people from a place of confidence, sureness, like, yeah, like I know, I know what God's up to. And I'm simply inviting you in tomorrow. We've got day 338. We're going to finish up the book of Esther. We've got Esther chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10. So how about you get those four chapters read, come back tomorrow. We'll dive into the content. It'll be amazing. I love you. I'm so proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. I'll see you tomorrow. Love you. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to the Bible Department. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.