An Epic Bender

There is an interesting, somewhat overlooked book in the Old Testament that is worthy of the big screen. (It’s actually been tried but the attempts were anemic). This biblical book is unique in that there is no mention of God. It is also unique in that it shares yet another compelling story of adoption. I mentioned that it is somewhat overlooked, but that’s not quite true. The Jewish faith names one of its many annual observances after the events that take place within this book. The observance is called the Feast of Purim, or the Feast of Esther. Rather than being an official, God-ordained feast, it arose as sort of a spontaneous celebration similar to our Thanksgiving. A fellow by the name of Mordecai came up with it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. There is first a story to tell that will eventually bring us to the feast. It’s a story of an adoption that turned out well.

The story is set in ancient Persia. That in itself is significant because the Persian race has sustained itself down to our day. In fact, they’re in the news quite a lot. The greatest concentration of these latter day Persians live in Iran. Those ancient Persians didn’t like the cut of the Jewish jib anymore than their descendants. As it turns out, the tiresome shibboleth: “Death to the Jews” is old news.

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Let’s have a look at the story. It begins with a complete blow-out of a party hosted by King Xerxes. He ruled a kingdom that spanned from India all the way to the Mediterranean and to the Black Sea and even into Egypt. Nearly every Middle Eastern country that we read about today was part of the 127 provinces ruled by Xerxes. The King lived in Susa, which is still around and goes today by the name, Shush.  Back in the day it was a place of splendor and King Xerxes wanted to strut his stuff. He invited all the right people – the rulers of the various provinces, the military brass, and a lot of lovely ladies. A couple of verses will suffice to get a feel for this party of the century: For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty… By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink with no restrictions, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. Esther 1:4,8By any standard, that was an epic bender.

One of subjugated people groups that didn’t make the guest list were the Jews. And amongst that oppressed class was an orphan – a young girl who had lost her parents. By God’s good grace she had a kindly cousin who took her in. The Scriptures give us this: Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. ~Esther 2:7

It will take us a few days to back-fill the story and as usual, I’m in no particular hurry. There are some larger than life protagonists and antagonists to meet. We’ll soon see that the story of Esther is the story of us.