The Qualities of Esther

Title: The Qualities of Esther

Text: The Book of Esther

Introduction

            One of the best stories that we have in the Bible is the story of Esther. Esther whose real name was Hadassah was a very ordinary girl who an impact in the nation Israel in the time of their captivity.

            In order to understand the story, let us be acquainted first with the main characters in the story.

First we have king Xerxes (486-465 BC). He was the reigning king of Persian Empire in the time of Esther. He is the successor of King Darius the first ruler of the Persian Empire. Xerxes is known in trying to invade Greece in 481-479 BC but suffered a humiliating defeat against the 10,000 Greek army. He suffered his first devastating defeat when king Leonidas 1 met the Persian army at the hot gates which has became a legend. King Leonidas having a little more than 300 army was able to hold their position for two days giving more time for the Greeks to assemble their 10,000 army which defeated Xerxes forces.

            The second character was Mordecai. He came from the Benjamite line and a descendant of Saul. He is the cousin of Hadassah who took care of her. He is a notable man but was not given a valuable recognition until the death of Haman.

            Lastly, we have Haman. Coming from the Amalekites lineage (through king Agag, the Amelikites king whom Saul did not kill), Haman probably hates the Jews so much in knowing the historical conflict between them where Israelites almost exterminated them if it were not only because of the disobedience of King Saul (1 Samuel 15:1-9).   

Succession of the Great Empires

Babylonian Empire      Persian Empire               Greek Empire

King Nebuchadnezzar             King Darius 1                        Alexander the Great

                                               King Xerxes

                                               King Darius III

The Qualities of Esther

1. Pleasing Personality (Esther 2:9, 17) Esther when she first have acquaintances with Hegai (in-charge of the women of the king), won his favor and pleased him. In verse 17, when she faced king Xerxes, she also pleased him among all other women.

Pleasing someone has never been so easy especially if you do it intentionally in front of the highest authority of the land. And this is not just a land but an empire. But here, it is very clear that Esther after meeting these people immediately one their favor.

I can only imagine that perhaps Esther, was not only beautiful possessing an angelic face, she also possess an angelic character where she’s so kind and sweet, and heart warming fine lady. Anybody here possess that kind of quality? In our days, women have been so powerful that this quality that should be seen in women faded.

Some even formed women organizations that over powered men under the rule of law. And even the law itself is a little unfair with men in our time. Women can charge a man easily with rape, but men can never, or even if he can, can never proved that a woman raped him.

But in the passage the only thing that I can imagine here was that Esther, possess this one of kind pleasing personality where she immediately won the favor of those people she meet. Being a woman with pleasing personality also means being fine. Being a fine woman is different from outrageous shyness. What I mean was that there are women who were terribly shy to face people. This is not a fine quality of a woman but a terrible quality.

2. Loyal (Esther 2:22) Here we can see that Esther told king Xerxes about the plan to assassinate him after knowing it from Mordecai. Take note here that she is submissive to the authority of his king even if his king was an enemy of his people. Esther was one of the descendants of those people who were exiled at the time of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

Loyalty among women must be given an emphasis in our time now. How many women are out there being disloyal to their husbands? Marriage values have declined greatly in our time now. It even penetrated the Christian community in our time. In the states, there are lots of men who were divorcing their wives because of extra marital affairs with other men. In fact, I have a friend who did that because his wife was impregnated with other man within such a short period of time in their marriage life. The fact is, before men are the worst people when it comes to infidelity, and now women are becoming equality worst in this issue.

There are even cases that they are the one who plotted to kill their own husbands. Our world is not getting better when it comes to moral values, it becomes worst. And I do hope that our women here in the church are taking notes of this that you may become living examples of righteous women who follow God’s words.

3. Unselfish (Esther 2:22) Here we can see that she is the one who reported this to the king. But she did not take it for her credit instead giving it to the rightful person who discovered the plot. She could have told the king that she’s the one who discovered it, after all she’s the queen and Mordecai was a very ordinary man.  But Esther was unselfish woman who do not take credits at the expense of others.

But look at our world today. How many women take credit for themselves at the expense of others? Not only women but also men, and this are especially true in the field of politics. Both men and women in politics claim to own even the waiting shed that we have where the people owns it by paying tax. Do you ever wonder why we have so many waiting sheds in which the main posts are letters? I’ve seen several letters already, P, O, W, M, B, A, Y. And perhaps the only letter that I haven’t seen was the “Ñ”.

4. Caring (Esther 4:5) We can see here that after knowing that Mordecai was very distressed, he sent a messenger to him asking for what is happening to him. Mordecai was his cousin and a friend. She’s very concern with him why is he mourning, wailing, fasting and wearing sackcloth. She even sent Mordecai some clothes to wear.

Going back in our days, are the ladies still caring to the men? Citing Esther as our Biblical example, Esther was caring even to her relatives. In our time, the ladies are the one who demands the men to be caring. That’s not bad at all because men should be more caring than women, and I definitely agree with that. But Biblically speaking, women should also be caring.

Are you caring with your family, including to your husbands? How about to your relatives? Many women are no longer like that. They are not as caring as they should be. Before men works in the field while women work in their homes. Today, men and women work in the field, and still work when they get home. And even worst because we also have men working in the field, while women stays at home doing nothing, and when the husbands get home, he still the one to take care the household chores.

5. Brave (Esther 4:15-17) Here we can see that Esther is brave enough to face the king even if it is against the law hoping for the solution that lies within the hands of the king. In her time, king Xerxes prohibits that someone will just appear before him without any valid reason and the only solution to this matter is to extend his scepter to the person violating this law to touch its tip. The penalty for the violation of this law is death.

            But Esther is a very brave woman who is willing to give her life for her people. We can see here a powerful statement of Esther that says, “And if I perish, I perish.” We may still have this kind of women in our time. They maybe rare to find but we have some brave women that we know, willing to give up their lives for their people.

6. Able leader (Esther 8 and 9) By reading through chapters 8 and 9 we can see there that Esther possessing all these qualities is also an able leader. Esther and Mordecai worked together for the good of their people. Esther gave herself to be an instrument for the salvation of his people against terrible threat of their rival nations.

 

Conclusion:

            Where are we now as Christian women? Are we still the women who possess these qualities?

Another sermon manuscript of Ptr. Vince Olaer.

He is the Pastor of the Lighthouse Christian Ministry of Ormoc, Leyte, Philippines. Also visit his other websites:

 www.freewebs.com/wsmuniversity ;

 www.freewebs.com/lighthousresource;

www.lighthouseresource.blogspot.com ;

 www.wsmuniversity.blogspot.com

www.lcmstudentcenter.blogspot.com

He prepared a gift for his visitors in each of his websites that are downloadable and ready to be claimed. Aside from this, he is also a regular contributor to Ezine articles.