Bridge to Esther

Esther 7:1-6

The Silence Broken

1. After Haman’s deep humiliation, when he had to publicly honor his enemy, Mordecai, he arrived at the palace. So the king and Haman came to banquet, to feast, with Esther the queen.

2. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted, or given to thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom. Again, the king was ready to give his wife anything she might desire. By this time, he must have been very curious about what was on her heart.

3. Then Esther the queen answered and said, (using very polite manners, as one would when speaking to a king), If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition; in other words, allow me to live instead of to die; and also my people at my request:

4. She needed to be very careful what she said next, for not only Haman had decided to kill the Jews; the king himself had also agreed to it. That’s why she didn’t say yet who was involved in the evil plan. For we are sold for much money, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, or killed, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, if we had been sold to become slaves, I had held my tongue: I would not have said anything, although the enemy who would do this could not countervail, or offset the king’s damage; the king would suffer because of the harm of me and my people. The last part of this verse is difficult to translate; it could also mean: if we only would have been sold, I would not have troubled the king about it.

5. Then the king Ahasuerus answered, no doubt raising his voice in anger, and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst, who dares to presume, or plan such a thing in his heart to do so? Who would ever dare to think of harming the queen and her people? The king had no idea that he was not only sharing a drink with the very man, but also that he himself was part of this evil plan!

6. And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. The words we have in a nice sentence are written in short and tense words bursting from her heart. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen, as he realized what Esther’s words meant. His plan to kill the Jews was threatening the life of the queen! That was too close to the heart of the king. Haman knew he was in real danger now.

Something to think about:

She said it! Finally, Esther broke the silence about who she really was. For many years, she had carefully guarded this top secret. That wasn’t a comfortable way to live. A secret locked up tightly in your heart is like a piece of dirt stuck in your eye. You can never really fully enjoy life with your parents or friends (or later, with your spouse) if you are hiding something. It always nags or pinches inside you.

Let’s learn that eventually all evil will catch up with us. Esther had been wrong to hide her Jewishness from her husband. If Ahasuerus had known, would he have agreed to Haman’s plan?

Maybe there is something you wish you hadn’t done. You try to forget about it, but you can’t, even though you have confessed it to God. Tell your parents. Let the secret out to them so that they can help you clear it up. Honesty not only lasts longest; it is also the most pleasant!