Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

I want to give you a heads up that today's podcast might not be the best for younger ears.

I'm going to talk openly about what's happening in the text here.

This story has an important theme and a beautiful ending, but there are some horrific stops along the way,

so use your own discretion. Esther is generally regarded as historical narrative, but one other

thing to note is that it's the only book in the Bible that doesn't mention God's name.

Maybe you didn't even notice that in our

reading today because we see him in the shadows of every scene, working things out in keeping with his

plan and his promises. We open in the capital of Persia, the empire that toppled Babylon

while the Jewish exiles were living there. Ahasueres is king. We first met him in Ezra four just a few days ago. He was one of the

kings who got a letter from the angry locals during their letter-writing campaign to stop the

rebuilding of the temple. He's not a follower of Yahweh. He's just a regular pagan king and a pagan

empire. In history, he's typically referred to as Xerxes I. At this point, he's three years into his reign,

which makes it approximately 483 BC. He throws a massive six-month party, presumably for himself,

and invites everyone to see how rich and awesome he is. If you don't like it when people celebrate

their birth week or birth month, you probably wouldn't like King Ahashwaris.

His wife, Queen Vashti, was a real looker, and as the grand finale for his self-serving

soiree, he wants her to come out and take a lap in her crown, and possibly nothing else.

If ancient Jewish commentaries are correct, it seems King A wants to parade his naked wife in front of all the men at his banquet.

Even if these weren't the specifics of his request, Fausti refuses to come, which is an affront to his ego and his throne.

He calls a staff meeting to find out what kind of punishment he's allowed to hand out to her. And his advisors say that they are personally offended

by her response, because now their wives will feel like they can do whatever they want to.

...