Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
1And the king and Haman went to banquet with Esther the queen, 2and the king said to Esther again in the day of the second in the banquet of wine, “What [is] your petition, Queen Esther, and it will be given to you and what [is] your request, until the half of the kingdom and it will be done?” 3And Esther the queen answered and she said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if upon the king it is good, let my soul be given to me in my petition and my people in my request, 4because I and my people have been sold to [be] exterminated, to [be] murdered, and to [be] destroyed, and if we had been sold to men-slaves and girl-slaves, I would have caused to be silent because the distress not being smooth in the loss of the king.” 5And Xerxes the king said and he said to Esther the queen, “Who he this? And where this he who his heart has filled him to do this?” 6And Esther said, “A man, an adversary, and a hating one, Haman the bad the this,” and Haman was terrified from to the faces of the king and the queen.
There are many notable observations we could take from these verses, but I mainly just want to observe what an amazing young woman Esther is. Hopefully we could all walk away encouraged to “go and do likewise.”
First notice her humility. She says to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it seems good to you…” Notice the if, if, and notice that she addresses him as “O king.” She could have addressed him as “my husband,” or started it with “As your queen…,” as if those things earned her some special favor before him. Notice too that, after her first request, each time she patiently waits until he asks her what her request is. She clearly lets him be “in charge.” Then when she does ask, she uses his exact words in her response. He had asked, "What is your petition, and what is your request?” She responds with, “Grant me my life – this is my petition, and spare my people – this is my request.” In Hebrew, the words for petition and request are the same words Xerxes had used and in the same order. Even in how she answers, she lets him be “in charge.” Then, of course, she adds, “If we had only been sold as male and female slaves, it wouldn’t have been worth bothering you over, and I would have kept silent.”
Actually, just so it is acknowledged, that last statement of hers is very difficult to translate. If you look it up in different Bibles, you will find quite a variety of wordings. However, for our purposes, no matter how it gets translated, what she is saying is that she is concerned for the king himself and wants to spare him trouble.
All of that said, remember she is very beautiful. No doubt Xerxes was used to the Persian girls whose beauty only made them haughty and presuming. Not so with Esther. Of course Esther knew she was very beautiful. She had probably known that ever since she was old enough to notice people’s attention and be told many times, “You’re so cute!” But Mordecai had somehow helped her to see her beauty as something not to be arrogant about, but rather as a gift from God. Somehow he had taught her to keep her focus on being humble and kind, to still always assume she’d have to earn people’s respect and not to use her beauty as a way to manipulate other people.
Most of us reading the text of course don’t have to struggle with how to live in this world knowing we’re stunningly beautiful or handsome! However, we are all quite capable of getting haughty and arrogant, especially when we think we deserve something. Esther didn’t, even when her very life was at stake. We might pause and ask, what makes someone humble like Esther? Here is what I would like to suggest: It is her faith that makes her humble. Once again, in this book of a world without God, we don’t get to be directly told that Esther is trusting God. However, what her faith does is it frees her from feeling she needs to somehow “control” this situation. She can trust God that somehow all of this will work out, that whether she lives or dies, she can simply entrust it all to this God who loves her and Mordecai and her people. I personally love that one of the Hebrew words for “trust” actually means to be “recklessly confident.” That is clearly what Esther is.
On the other hand, for people who have no God to trust, they must resort to some kind of manipulation to make sure this whole thing turns out the way they want it to. It is that very manipulation that inevitably expresses itself as some form of very unattractive arrogance. I think we could all agree, if a girl tried to use her beauty or position to persuade Xerxes to spare her life, no one would blame her. We would all agree that, when her life is at stake, “Hey! You gotta do what you gotta do. You have to put all your aces on the table!” We wouldn’t blame her. But Esther here teaches us a better way – the way of trusting the God who rules even over the heart of a king. What she teaches us is that, even in a totally pagan world of people who could care less about God, even with people who are totally selfish and even narcissists, and even when our very life is at stake, the humility that comes from trusting God is a beautiful thing.
Another thing that has amazed me is how she has had Haman present all along the way. It had to be very brave of her to utter those words “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman,” and to do it right to his face! Remember he is the king’s most favored counselor. In a split second, the king has to decide which is more important to him, his queen or his favorite counselor. It would have been so easy for Esther to not have had Haman present, but somehow she knew her accusation would be far more effective if she could accuse him to his face right in front of the king.
Those thoughts probably lead to another observation I want to make, and that is how smart our Esther is. If you slow down and really think through what she’s done, how she did it, what order she did it in, what she’s said, every step of the way she has been amazingly wise. All the way back to her very first request, remember that she invited the king and Haman to her banquet which she had prepared. It's like saying to any man, I’ve got steaks on the grill. At that moment, you are already about 97% on the way to him accepting your invitation! Then we saw how two times she put off her request with an invitation to dinner. By this third time, Xerxes knows this must be something very important, so he is prepared to hear something he knows will concern far more than the color of her apartment or even a favor to a friend.
Then notice even the order of the request itself. Her very first request is to ask for her life. That no doubt in itself was shocking to the king, to think his beautiful, sweet, humble queen was in danger! I believe in an instant, the “knight in shining armor” in his male heart arose at the thought of this “maiden in distress.” Only then does she add, “and my people,” so the king begins to realize this is way bigger than even just Esther. Then she brings in the very wording of Haman’s edict when she says, “I and my people have been sold to destruction and slaughter and annihilation.”
Haman had coined those words in the gleeful animosity of his evil heart. Now Esther turns their shock value against him as, no doubt, the king hears them for the first time. Some have suggested she uses those words to remind him of Haman’s edict. However, remember the king passed the whole thing off to Haman and said, “Do whatever you wish.” Then remember that the king cares absolutely nothing about the plight of his people. He has gone so far as to utterly insulate himself against any indication of their sorrow. Remember when the edict was issued, “all Susa was bewildered,” but he and Haman “sat down to drink.” I seriously doubt he’s ever even heard the words. It’s very likely, even today as they are seated together, he knows nothing about the whole affair.
Finally, after all her wise preparations, he exclaims, “Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing!” In the Hebrew, it is especially clear that by this time he is actually alarmed. Then Esther arrives at the accusation itself. Even in it, she proceeds wisely. She says literally, “a man, an enemy, and a hating one.” In Hebrew, each term progressively expresses more aversion, until finally she says, “Haman, the bad, this one!”
I suspect, after all Esther’s very skillful emotional buildup, in that very moment, the king finally realizes this is what Haman’s edict was about. In a moment he realizes that Haman tricked him into issuing the edict, that Haman took advantage of his trust and used his favored position to carry out his own personal vendetta. He perhaps remembers that Haman had described them as a people “whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s laws.” Now, in a flash, the king realizes he was talking about people like Esther and Mordecai, and that the accusation itself was totally untrue. One can only imagine the intensity of his anger!
Haman was certainly right by this point to be “terrified” in the presence of the king and queen. As we say, “His goose was cooked.” Good job, Esther! Once again, I am amazed how artfully she prepared and executed her case against Haman. I suspect she would have made an awesome attorney! What it teaches all of us is to consider carefully our words, especially when there are major issues at stake. If we need to go to our bosses or to someone of significant position, we need to learn from Esther not to just go in and blurt out whatever is on our mind. We should intelligently think through what we will say and how we will say it, do our best to present our case, then, like Esther, trust God with the outcome, so that, through it all, we maintain a humble, calm demeanor.
I think we can all say to her, “Esther, I’m very proud of you!”
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