In His Sovereignty

Some reflections from the Book of Esther

1. In His Sovereignty, King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, causing him to ask for Queen Vashti to display her beauty, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
2. In His Sovereignty, Queen Vashti refused to obey King Xerxes' command, fuelling his anger, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
3. In His Sovereignty, Xerxes' nobles advised him to search for a new queen as a result of Vashti's disobedience, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
4. In His Sovereignty, Esther, was brought to the king's harem among many other girls while keeping her Jewish identity secret, and won the favour of everyone who saw her, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
5. In His Sovereignty, the king was attracted to Esther and made her queen, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
6. In His Sovereignty, Mordecai who sat at the king's gate found out about a plot to kill the king and told Queen Esther about it, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
7. In His Sovereignty, Haman, second to the king, scorned Mordecai and issued a decree using the king's ring to kill all Jews on a certain day in a certain month, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
8. In His Sovereignty, Esther, urged by Mordecai to beg the king for mercy, asks all Jews to fast together with her for 3 days before she goes to the king, knowing she might lose her life for appearing in the king's court without summoning, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
9. In His Sovereignty, the king held out his gold scepter to Esther, pardoning her, and agrees to go to her banquet prepared for him and Haman, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
10. In His Sovereignty, Esther at the banquet requests for both king and Haman to attend another banquet on the day after, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
11. In His Sovereignty, that same night, Haman boasts to his friends about the banquet he was invited to, and moans about Mordecai the Jew, to which his friends suggest building a seventy-five feet high gallows and asking the king for permission to hang Mordecai on it the next morning, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
12. In His Sovereignty, that same night, the king could not sleep and asked for the book of chronicles to be read, during which he realised that Mordecai had not received honour for uncovering the plot to assassinate the king, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
13. In His Sovereignty, Haman was in the king's court ready to present his request, the king asked Haman for a suggestion of how to honour a man, to which Haman suggests an extravagant idea thinking it would be for himself, and ends up doing exactly what he suggested for Mordecai, the man he was about to murder, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
14. In His Sovereignty, at the second banquet, Esther begs the king to spare her and her people's life from Haman; Xerxes' eunuch informs him about the gallows, and the king commands Haman to be hanged on the seventy-five feet high gallows he built for Mordecai to be hanged on, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
15. In His Sovereignty, the king commands Esther and Mordecai to write a decree on behalf of the Jews to defend themselves, an event leading to God's people being rescued.
16. In His Sovereignty, Mordecai the Jew was appointed second in rank to King Xerxes, and he worked for the good of the Jews.