Esther

I finished up Esther last week.  I really struggled to keep up with regular Bible study with the move, so this book took awhile, even though it's a small book.

• King Xerxes held a banquets, then he requested Queen Vashti to show her beauty to the people and important men, who happened to be drunk - She refused!
• She is then removed as Queen & no longer welcome in the King's presence as the King and his wise advisors decided
• They were afraid women everywhere would see this & disrespect their husbands, so a decree went out to everyone for her punishment
• King decides to bring in beautiful women to replace Vashti and put them through 12 months of beauty treatments before they go before the King for him to select a Queen
• Hadassah or Esther is gone to the King - she is a Jew, cousin of Mordecai who raised her
• Everyone liked Esther and she became Queen, but she never told them where she came from or who her people were
• Mordecai walks by the women's quarters daily to check on Esther
• Mordecai discovers 2 officers planned to kill the kind & Mordecai tells Esther, who tells the King - Investigated and found true, so officers were hanged
• Haman rises to power under the King and is angry Mordecai won't bow down to him because he is Jewish
• Haman lays out a plan, approved and sent out to destroy all Jews on 1 set day
• Mordecai hears of order and is in deep grief and rough cloth
• Esther hears of this and sends a eunich of the King as a messenger, Hathach, to find out why, them she learns of the whole plan
• Mordecai, through the eunich, told Esther to go to the King and please for her people, Esther reminded Mordecai that it could mean death for her if the King doesn't invite her in, but she chooses to go
• They fast in preparation for going to the King
• Esther goes to the King and is welcomed, she invites him and Haman to a banquet; they go
• At the banquet, Esther invites the King and Hama to a banquet the next night
• Haman feels pleased he's so special and arrogant, but is angered by Mordecai still
• Advised by friends and his wife, Haman orders a platform built to hang Haman and will ask King for such orders
• During the night the king couldn't sleep and read records that reminded him Mordecai warned of the plot against him
• King wanted to honor him, so he found Haman and asked how reward should happen for someone
• Haman said a robe and horse of the king and parade them through town
• King sends Haman to do that for Mordecai
• Haman goes home embarrassed and tells wife and friends, but he is pulled away to Esther's banquet
• At the banquet, Esther answers the King when he asks what she wants - her life spared and the lives of her people
• King Xerxes demands to know who has made such a order, she said Haman
• The King walked to the garden in anger and returned to find Haman falling on the couch where Queen Esther was lying, and further angered the King
• Servants came, covered Haman, and took him away while a eunich said to hang him on the platform near his Haman's house that he had built for Mordecai
• Queen Esther was giving everything Haman had left and Mordecai came to see the king once he learned his relation to Esther
• The King gave Mordecai the signet ring and they wrote a new notice to all the lands of Jewish people that they could gather and fight back against their enemies on that day
• The Jews defeated their enemies, everyone was afraid of them and Mordecai and killed many including Hama's 10 sons - the King allowed them to continue to defeat their enemies
• Hama's 10 sons were hanged on a platform
• The Feast of Purim is established - it was to be celebrated annually because it was a time of joy from when their sadness turned to great joy - food to each other and presents to the poor