Women with a Story to Tell. Esther.12.

 Haman is stepping carefully, hoping that what he had planned for Mordecai is not revealed now that the king has honored him. He does not realize that the stakes are much higher than his personal vendetta. Esther continues to slow walk her request until the right moment arrives. 

” So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled’” (Esther 7: 1-2).

 Notice the context. Esther is giving a feast for the king and Haman, so she is the one who is managing the schedule. The feast has gone into its second day. Remember in Chapter 1 that the banquet given by the king for his nobles lasted for 180 days, so our words ‘feast’ and ‘banquet’ are inadequate to understand what is going on. 

 At this point, the king and Haman are relaxing while drinking wine. The king is in a good mood, or drunk, perhaps similar to the condition of Herod Antipas when he promised Herodias anything that she would ask up to half his kingdom (Mark 6: 17-29).

“Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace, but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king’” (Esther 7: 1-4).

 Once again, Esther is clever in phrasing her request, not untruthful, just shaping her argument to get the desired response from the king. Her life is in danger because her people are under threat of genocide. If she had begun the other way around, who knows whether the king would be concerned about one of his captive people, the Jews? But she began with her own well-being, and the king is concerned about Esther.

 Second, Esther amplifies the approaching doom for her and her people with strong verbs: destroyed, killed, annihilated. The king has in his hands the power of life and death over individuals and even small groups, like the two guards who were planning to assassinate him. But his recent executive order confers the right to kill on the neighbors of the Jews. That is a socially divisive matter, and it is the reason that the capital city was in such a turmoil (Esther 3: 12-15). That would be like the government not only asking us to spy on our neighbors and on a particular day to pull out our guns and kill them. And the decree also gives us permission to ransack their property. 

 Perhaps that is why Esther makes her final appeal: “...but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.” What does that mean? First, it is a sly reference to the bribe that Haman made without calling it out directly. An investigation might reveal the king’s involvement in taking money under the table. 

 In addition, her charge implies that the deal has implicated the king and has put his authority in jeopardy. How is that so?

 First, remember that on hearing the executive order “the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.” It is likely that this was also the case throughout the empire when the news spread. Of course, anyone who was already anti-semitic might see this as an opportunity to riot and break into Jewish shops. However, if the response was anything like that of the people of the capital city, those who planned to take advantage were in the minority; the majority was confused and concerned. If that is correct, then the king has issued an unpopular executive order.

 Second, given that the empire was made up of conquered people, many of whom were displaced from their homes themselves just like the Jews, such an executive order would send a chill down their spines. Scholars report that the population of the empire included Medes, Elamites, Bactrians, Margians, Kurds, Lurs, Mazandernis, Gilakis, Talysh, Aimaqi, and Arabs, among others. If the king can target one displaced ethnic group, then he can do the same thing to others. First they come for the Jews, but eventually they will get to me and my people.      

 Turmoil and discontent are not good for a multicultural state because it is so easy to fracture along ethnic lines. Esther is right in her analysis of the political situation; such an attack on the Jews certainly would reflect poorly on the king. Confusion might turn to rebellion in the empire. 

“Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?’ Esther said, ‘A foe and an enemy, this wicked Haman!’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen” (Esther 7: 5-6).  

 “Be sure your sins will find you out.” 

 Have you ever read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”? It is a short story–very short–where the narrator tells his account trying to assert that he is not a madman. He killed an old man whose visage irritated him, dismembered the body, and hid it below the floor boards. All neat and cleaned up, he was not disturbed later when the police came because they had a report about a scream. The narrator assured them it was his scream at a nightmare and, overly confident, he invited them in to search the premises. After their efforts satisfied them, he bid them sit and talk awhile. It was during the talk that he began to hear a sound like a pocket watch might make under a pillow. It was a heart beat and it was growing louder by the minute. He grew pale, wondering why the police did not hear it. Unnerved, he confessed to the murder. 

 “Be sure your sins will find you out” (see Numbers 32: 23; then Luke 12: 2).