Queen Esther helps to save the king

Imagine reading The “Persian Herald” Newspaper a day after king Xerxes set the royal crown on the head of Esther! If such a newspaper had existed, the headline would probably be “A Beauty Queen from Susa has finally won the heart of the king” or “Persia’s newest Queen is a Beautiful Young woman from Susa.” On the side, the local newspapers would have catchy headlines such as, “Rude Vashti finally gets a replacement”, “A new STAR (Esther) has risen”, “Our king has a new Beauty Queen”, “The Palace has a Star!” among many others. Thankfully,  there were no printing presses and media stations to peddle these interesting headlines. King Xerxes, the real party man, gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials and he proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality (Esther 2:18). The joy among the Jewish people who knew Esther’s family background would have been massive. However, the new Queen had a big secret. Her family background and nationality was unknown to the king and the other members of the ruling team. Esther was told by Mordecai to keep her background and nationality a secret. Even as queen, Esther continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up (Esther 2:20).

But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. (Esther 2:22)

One day, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate when Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes (Esther 2:21). Mordecai found out about this evil plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai (Esther 2:22). The king’s life was in danger. Bigthana and Teresh were guards and could have easily assassinated the king if Mordecai had not found out. When Esther was told, she didn’t sit on the case. She quickly reported this to the king. The king did not sit on the case either. He quickly issued an investigation into the report and it was found to be true. Bigthana and Teresh were impaled on poles for that. This incident was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king (Esther 2:23). If Mordecai had not found out the plot, the case would have been different. All the people in the story contributed to averting the crime against the king. 

Although Mordecai was not honoured for this heroic act immediately, he was still honoured at the right time. What made his honouring unique was the fact that he was paraded through the town by the very man who wanted nothing else than the death of Mordecai (see Esther 5:13-14). Saving the king wasn’t the only big thing Esther did. In fact, Esther was destined to save a whole people group in the Persian kingdom. But, the king might have delighted in the fact that his new Queen had saved him from assassins. If Mordecai had no Esther in the Palace, it would have been difficult to get quick access to the king. Maybe the assassins would have tried to stop the king from investigating the issue. However, Esther trusted Mordecai enough to know that the report was urgent. 

The story of Esther and Mordecai’s help in saving the king is a reminder that we should know that within our bigger task or call in life, are minor tasks that must be done for us to be able to get to the big goal. If the death threat on the king had not been aborted, who knows what would have happened and the impact that would have had on everyone.  Be always on the lookout for ways you can help improve your family, church, community, work and the people around you. Be your neighbour’s keeper. Be on guard and don’t take the lives of others for granted. Don’t be quick to say that “it is their problem not mine” but rather say, “how best can I help you get out of this problem.” Sometimes our blessings are tied to particular people and as long as they have issues, we would be in queue for our breakthrough. However, when they overcome their own challenges, then they can attend to the needs of others.