Esther

The book of Esther deals with the survival of the Jewish people in the midst of a time of adversity in the Persian Empire.  This occurs when Xerxes (also called Artaxerses) king of Persia divorces his wife because she did not appear at the king's banquet.  Xerxes then has a twelve month beauty pageant in which he spends a night with twelve different contestants who are competing to become his new wife.  He ends up choosing Esther, who is a young Jewish girl.  Esther's uncle Mordecai, becomes aware of a plot to assassinate Xerxes and thus he ends up alerting Xerxes of the plot and Mordecai is elevated to a high position in the kingdom.  Haman, the prime minister of Persia, and an Amalekite, is the antagonist in this book.  Haman wants to fully destroy the Jewish people and is out to destroy Mordecai.  Haman even erects gallows of which he plans to hang Mordecai on.  However, the plan backfires as Xerxes promises Esther to grant her any request she would like to make.  Esther request that Xerxes pledge to protect the wellbeing of her people as she comes out in the open about being a Jew.  Xerxes indeed pledges to protect her and is made aware of the plot of Haman against her and the Jews.  Xerxes then leaves the room for a moment and Haman finds time alone to talk to Esther.  When Xerxes returns, he finds Haman on the couch on top of Esther and it looks as if Haman is assaulting her.  Xerxes then becomes furious and has Haman hung on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai.  After Haman's death Mordecai is elevated to Prime Minister of Persia and Xerxes assures the Jews that they will be protected as he issues an edict on their behalf.  The ten sons of Haman are then hung on gallows.  After the triumph of the Jews, Esther declares the day of their triumph a holiday.  The holiday is called Purim which means the "feast of lots."  This are days the Jews observe as days of joy and feasting and giving presents to each other.  The holiday is named the feast of lots because lots were cast for the ruin and the destruction of the Jewish people by Haman.  The book of Esther concludes with telling of how Mordecai was elevated to second rank in the empire and was held in high esteem as he worked to assure the welfare of his peop[le and spoke up for the good of the Jewish people.  Esther is one of the only two books in the Old Testament that does not mention the name of God.  it does not have a Christian equivalent holiday but is symbolic of the fact that Satan cast out a lot for the destruction of all humanity, yet Christ came and served in a role of which God issued an edict through so that the gap could could be bridged between us and God.