Esther's story, chapter 8

Last time, in Esther's story, we had gotten to a pivotal point in the plot.

So, after the King had discovered what Haman was going to do to the Jews, he had Haman hung. Afterwards, he delivered the house of Haman (being all his belongings and his wife and his children) to Esther.

At this point, Esther was finally able to tell her husband who Mordecai was to her. So the King had Mordecai brought into the palace and gave him the ring that Haman had previously had. Esther gave Haman's house to Mordecai.

After this, Esther went again into the King's court and he held out his scepter to her (I guess she probably knew he would now, I doubt she was anywhere near as afraid as she was the first time.).

She begged the King, crying and pleading, that he save her people. You must remember, even though Haman is now dead, the law he put into place is still a law. And what the King had signed, no man could change.

So the King told Mordecai that he could write to all the Jews to tell them to protect themselves.

So Mordecai called the Scribes and had them write letters saying that on the day that the Jews were to be attacked, they should fight back, whether it was men, women, or children attacking, they should defend themselves. And after they had killed their attacker, they would be allowed to take the 'spoils of war', so to speak, from the attacker.

So Mordecai sealed the letters with the King's ring and sent it to all the cities that the first letter had gone to.

When the Jews read this new law, they held a day of feasting and rejoicing. The city of Shushan (where the King lived), was so very glad to see Mordecai, alive and well, dressed in royal clothing with a gold crown on his head. They all knew that he had the King's favor and that their lives were saved.

Many of the other people of the land became Jews during this time, because they were so afraid of what the Jews might do to them.

Next time will be the completion of the story.

Cheers!

Esther's story, chapter 7

Alright, here we go, continuing Esther's story.

 

 So, at the end of the last chapter, the King and Haman were on their way to meet Esther for the second feast.

 

 

Once they've eaten and had some wine, the King asks again what it is that Esther wants.

 

This time, Esther begins to beg the King to spare the life of her and her people. She says that she wouldn't have even bothered him had it only been slavery, but they are all about to be killed.

 

The King, slightly taken aback, asks who and where is the man who could even think to lay on finger on her.

 

Esther responds that it is Haman.

 

I imagine at this point, Haman was probably breaking into a cold sweat. It says in the Bible that he is now afraid of the King and Queen and what they might do to him.

 

The King gets so angry that he has to go out into the garden to think things over, leaving Haman and Esther in her banquet hall.

 

Haman is terrified, so he runs over to Esther to beg that she tries to talk to the King, knowing that the King is planning some terrible demise to the one who had threatened his beloved.

 

The King comes back in to find this unpleasant scene, with Haman having thrown himself on the bed with Esther, probably writhing around, begging for mercy.

 

The King's mind flies to all the things that he assumes Haman was doing. He is very angry, thinking he had tried to force himself on Esther.

 

The King is absolutely in a rage when a servant comes in and tells the King a report about the gallows that Haman had built in his backyard for Mordecai.

 

If the King hadn't known that Mordecai had saved his life, and if he hadn't liked Mordecai, he may have dismissed it.

 

But he didn't.

 

Haman had pushed the King just a little too hard.

 

So the King had Haman hung on the gallows intended for Mordecai.

 

All of Haman's plans came crashing down around him in just a very little while. He had let his anger and hatred fuel his actions, and it got him dangling lifeless from a gallows in his own backyard.

 

And thus ends Mordecai's story, although, not Esther's. Not quite.

 

Cheers!

Esther's story, chapter 6

Aaaaaaaaaand back to Esther's story!!

Okay, this is were it starts to get reaaaaaaally interesting.

So after the feast that Esther had given, Haman and the King both went about their other business. Haman had a gallows made and the King just went back to whatever kingly duties he had.

That night, the King couldn't sleep, so he had the book of records brought in and someone to read it to him.

This is when he discovers that Mordecai had apparently discovered that Bigthana and Teresh, two people who worked in the palace, as the keepers of the door (guards), had planned to kill the king.

Mordecai had reported them and they had been dealt with.

So King Ahasuerus asks his men what honor had been given to Mordecai for doing this, to which his men replied there had been none.

So the King asked who was in the court (I'm assuming this was so he could ask their opinion). His men told him Haman was in waiting at the gates to talk to the king, so the king told him to be brought in.

Haman had been waiting to ask the king's permission to hang Mordecai, but first, the King decided to ask his advice.

So he asked Haman what, if he could, would he do to honor someone?

Haman thought that the King probably wanted to honor him. He is after all the king's favorite person, right?

So Haman says that he should take the royal robes and the crown that the king wears and put them on this man, then to take the horse that the king rides and have the king's most noble of the princes lead the horse with the man on it around the city shouting "Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor."

So the king likes this idea, so he says to Haman that he, being the most noble of all the princes, shall take Mordecai the Jew, and do all these things to him, because that is the man that the king wants to honor.

Haman cannot directly disobey the king. Even though Ahasuerus seems like a nice guy, he is also the king of a pagan land and he must keep the people respecting him, so Haman could probably have been killed or something for direct disobedience.

I'm sure that Haman was probably humiliated as he walked through the streets, yelling that the King was delighted in Mordecai. The man he hates is sitting on the king's horse, in the king's robes and crown, being pranced around in the streets and all the while, Haman is stewing, thinking about those gallows he had made, and how badly he wants to see Mordecai's limp corpse swaying in the wind in his back yard.

But he does as he is told anyway, and afterwards goes home and calls his friends and his wife together to tell them what happened.

Zeresh (his wife) says to him, If he has already fallen before Mordecai, the seed of the Jews, then he is going to fall. She doesn't think that his plan to kill all the Jews is going to work if he couldn't even get the upper hand on one Jew, his most hated adversary.

And while Haman is still talking to his friends and Zeresh, a servant from the palace comes to get him to take him to Esther's second feast.

And thus ends chapter 6.

Cheers!

Esther's story, chapter 5

Alright, back to Esther's story.

So, Mordecai has asked Esther to petition the King to save the lives of the Jews. And even though she is afraid, she said she would do it.

So Esther puts on her royal robes and goes into the inner court of the palace, which is where the King is.

And she waits on the opposite wall of where the king is sitting, probably scared silly.

But the King lowers his scepter to her and she comes forward to talk to him.

He asks what is it that she needs, whatever it is, he will give her, up to half of his kingdom.

I imagine that the King must have loved Esther very much. He lowered his scepter to her, even though her coming uninvited could have been seen as disrespect, like when Vashti didn't come.

And then, after he had done that, he kindly and lovingly asked her what she needed and said that she could have pretty much anything she wanted.

This was the chance she had been waiting for.

So she invited the King and Haman, the King's second in command, to a feast that she has prepared.

The King tells Haman to hurry up and get there, because he is eager to go.

Once they both are at the feast, the King asks Esther what is her particular request.

So she asks if the King and Haman would come back the next day to another feast that she is going to prepare.

It seems strange that she would keep asking them to feasts instead of just asking the King her actual request, to save the Jews, but I think she was probably pretty frightened that he would be angry at her and refuse, maybe because before this she hadn't seen him in a month and she wants to get his favor back.

Why she invites Haman, I'm not too sure. Maybe because she knew that Haman had written the law. Maybe because she knew that the King liked Haman a lot.

Or maybe because she was just letting God lead her to do what was necessary to save His people.

Anyway, after this feast, Haman is starting to get pretty prideful.

He is the second most powerful man in the Kingdom.

And when he gets to the gate, on his way home, there is Mordecai, who still won't bow down to Haman or show him any respect.

Haman is furious, but he knows he can't touch Mordecai right now, so he goes home and calls all his friends and his wife, Zeresh, to come talk to him.

He tells them how he is the biggest, best guy I the kingdom, only lesser than the King. He tells them that when the beautiful queen Esther came to invite her husband to a feast, she didn't ask anyone else to come except him, and now she has invited him to come back the next day.

And Mordecai won't bow to him.

So Zeresh suggests that he makes a gallows to hang Mordecai on, since he hates him so much.

Haman likes this idea, so he goes to get a gallows made in his back yard.

Can you imagine living in a day when you can just get a gallows made in your back yard and no one questions you?

Or having a loved one who suggests you just hang the guy you don't like?

I'll bet that Haman was probably getting a pretty big head. Maybe he thought that Esther favored him or something.

Either way, he is getting too big for his britches. And Pride comes before the Fall.

Alrighty, that's it for chapter 5.

Cheers!

Stuff I've been doing

So, lets take a break from the brave and beautiful Queen Esther for a bit so I can tell you about what I've been doing.

It has been quite a while since I've mentioned what's going on here at my house, far too long to really try and play catch up, so I'll just mention some cool things that come to mind before I get to my favorite part.

For starters, my mother has decided to teach an art class. We have students come to our home every Tuesday afternoon to draw.

Currently, we are learning out of Drawing on the right side of the brain. I've worked a little out of this book before, but I must say, I am not a very good artist, at least, not compared to the other three girls in the class.

But I'm sure I'll either get better, or I am not meant to be an artist of that sort.

I know for sure that I am not a painter.

We started going back to church this past Sunday. We haven't been going regularly to any church for a long time, since my dad was always busy on Sundays.

But now, we actually have time, so we are going to Jonas Ridge Baptist church. I really like all the people I've met who go there so far, and the teaching is really very good. No 'feel good' messages, as I like to call them, just truth, straight from the Bible.

For my whole life, my mom and dad have been quoting Karate Kid. I never was very interested in it until a few years ago, but I have never been able to convince mom and dad to watch it with me, so I never did.

Until a few days ago.

I. Love. That. Movie.

I really don't know why I hadn't watched it until then.

Daniel reminds me very much of a friend of mine. Through the whole movie, I kept thinking that.

Okay, just a very small mention here:

I just finished season 2 of Walking Dead.

Okay, end of mention.

The other day (Friday), we had some friends over to our house. When I say *some* I mean 15.

8 of them are some of our oldest and dearest friends. One was fiancé to Sunny, and the other two were friends of theirs who happened to be with them at the time.

As I said, these are some of our oldest and dearest friends, but we haven't seen them in a long time. I mean, not invited the over to hang out. We have run into them several times in the mall.

But anyway, it was a great time. Lots of dancing.

Also lots of running around and playing games and talking and eating and general fun stuff. I just mentioned dancing first because I danced for a long time.

Alright. Time for the part that I really wanted to get to:

I have been thinking about studying to become a cosmetologist. I thought that would be great fun.

But before I make that decision, I want to try my hand at playing with makeup for a while. So my sister said that I could use her as my guinea pig.

And so, the moment I have been waiting for: PICTURES!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Okay, so, the picture quality isn't so great on these since I was using my webcam and the lighting in the bathroom wasn't too good. But I thought that the makeup turned out really nicely.

 

When I first started, I was using purple eyeshadow, and that on it's own didn't look very good. But once I got some other colors on, it started looking better. And then I did her eyeliner and lipstick. Afterwards, I added the stars (turned out better than I had even hoped).

 

I had a ton of fun doing this. It's like drawing or painting. I think that a face is a better canvas than anything else.

 

I plan on doing this again really soon. Maybe I'll take pictures of the whole process and post them here.

 

Anyway, that is some of the things I have been up to lately.

 

Hope you'll come back and read my blog again soon!!

 

Cheers!

 

Esther's story, chapter 4

Alright, time for the continuation of Esther's story.

 

 When Mordecai discovers the new law, he is very understandably upset. He begins mourning, going through the city in his rent clothes with ashes in his head (that was the custom when you were in mourning).

 

He even went to the king's gates, but no one was allowed past that if they were in mourning.

 

When Esther heard he was mourning, she tried to send him out some decent clothes and get him cleaned up, but he refused.

 

Instead, he sent her a copy of the letter containing the new law.

 

Up until this point, Esther had not heard about the law.

 

Mordecai asks Esther to go to the king on behalf of her people.

 

Esther know that it is against the law to go to see the king unless he summoned her, and if she did go, she would be killed unless he held out his golden scepter to her.

 

Esther had not seen her husband in 30 days.

 

She tells Mordecai that she doesn't want to try and go see the king, she is afraid of being killed.

 

Mordecai then replies to her, "Don't think that you will escape when the Jews are being killed because you stay silent. God will send someone else to deliver his people, but if you do not speak up, you and your father's house will be killed. Perhaps you were put here for such a time as this."

 

  

 

So Esther asks Mordecai to get the all the Jews in Shushan to pray and fast for her and the difficult thing that she knows must be done.

 

She must go to the king.

 

So, that is the end of what happens in chapter 4.

 

Esther really was a very brave women. She could have just said no, she wouldn't ask and she would have probably lived the rest of her life in the palace.

 

Or maybe she would have been killed when they discovered she was a Jew. Secrets have a way of coming to the light.

 

But either way, she would have lived the rest of her life, however long or short it may be, in the comfort of the king's palace.

 

But instead she decided to listen to Mordecai and put her life in direct danger by going to the king and begging for the lives of thousands of her fellow Jews.

 

She was willing to put her life on the line to follow God's plan.

 

I hope that one day, if the need ever arises, I am able to do the same.

 

Because who knows? Perhaps I was put on earth for such a time as this.

 

Will I be prepared to give everything if God placed me in life to die for others?

 

I hope so.

 

Will you?

 

Cheers!

Esther's story, chapter 3

Alright, so, to continue the story of Esther.

In chapter 3 of Esther, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman to be his second in command. All the people were told to bow down and reverence Haman when they met him.

And most people did.

Except not Mordecai.

So the king's servants asked him why did he do this thing, after all, he might get into trouble. He was directly disobeying the king.

When Haman found out about this, it made him very angry. He decided he wanted to kill Mordecai for this, but didn't want to be found to have killed a single man.

Now, Mordecai was open about being a Jew, unlink Esther, so everyone knew that he was one.

So Haman decided to just kill all the Jews, young and old, women and children.

When he came to the king with his proposal, he also mentioned that the Jews really did nothing for the kingdom. They followed God's law, not the law of the land.

So Ahasuerus gave Haman his signet, which enabled Haman to create a law that said that on the 13th day of the 12th month (which was called Adar), everyone was to kill any Jews they found.

He wrote letters containing this law and sent it all over the kingdom so that everyone knew to kill the Jews.

And so the king and Haman went to have a drink, but the whole city of Shusan was upset about the new law.

If you really think about it, Haman was very similar to Hitler. A powerful man with a grudge against God's chosen people, the Jews.

Except Hitler and Haman's stories end very differently.

Anyway, that is all for now!

Cheers!

Esther's story, chapter 2

Well, obviously it has been quite some time since I posted.

But here I am again!

And so I will continue the story of Esther.

 

Okay, so after the King decided to put Vashti in a tower, he decided he wanted someone new. So his servants suggested that he get all the virgins (unmarried women) in his kingdom and decide which one he wanted to marry, and the rest could be concubines.

 

There was a certain Jew named Mordecai who had raised his uncle's daughter, Hadassah, who is Esther.

 

Esther was taken with the other women to the king's palace, but Mordecai told her not to tell them that she was a Jew, and even though she was probably an adult, or an older teenager at least, she still obeyed him, the man who raised her.

 

When Esther got to the palace, she gained the favor of the head of the women's house, Hegai. So he gave her more and better things than the other women.

 

For a year the women stated in the palace, preparing to meet the king. After all, most of them were poor farmers daughters, merchants daughters, people like that. None of them really had much time to take care of themselves, not like they should to meet the king.

 

At the end of a year, the women would take turns going to see the king, going at night and returning in the morning. Every one of them was sent to the house of the concubines, and the king would not see them anymore, not unless he particularly fancied her.

 

Until it was Esther's turn.

 

All of the women had been allowed whatever clothing or jewelry they wanted when they went to see the king. Esther deiced to ask Hegai what he thought would be best.

 

So when it was her turn she went in what he had suggested.

 

And the king loved her more than any of the other women, so he married her and she became the queen.

 

She still didn't tell anyone that she was a Jew.

 

Mordecai would come ever day to the gates to see how Esther was doing. One day, while he was at the gates, he overheard a plot against the king.

 

So he told Esther, who looked into the matter and discovered it to be true.

 

So the traitors, Bigthan and Teresh were hung.

 

In the movie, One night with the king they go into much more detail during the time that the King was falling in love with Esther. While the movie is highly inaccurate, I still enjoy that part. I always love a good love story, particularly one that is based in truth.

 

Anyway, I will try to remember to write the next part tomorrow.

 

I do love Esther's story.

 

Cheers!