Rambling: Thoughts on Esther

I spent about 45 minutes this afternoon reading through and pondering the book of Esther. Here are some of the thoughts I had while reading it.

First, if I read the book of Esther in multiple languages, would that mean that I was a fan of "poly-Esther"?
Xerxes gave a 180-day party! That's six months long. Can you imagine what that must have been like? Six months of one man showing off how great he thought he was! Then, he gives a banquet for everyone, from the least to the greatest. There must have been some pretty happy peasants!
During this banquet, "each guest was allowed to drink in his own way" (NIV). There must have been some really happy peasants. (A note in my Bible quotes the Greek historian Heroditus as writing that the Persians "are very fond of wine, and drink it in large quantities...It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk...Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.") The importance of wine to the Persians will show up several more times in the book.
Speaking of happy people, Xerxes drank enough during the banquet to be "in high spirits" (i.e. drunk). Then, he decided to have his queen, Vashti, come parade before all of his noblemen. When she refused, he deposed her and then issued a strange command.
This edict said that "every man should be ruler over his own household". This command is strange because it is either superfluous, or it means that the general state of affairs in Persia was quite the opposite. :-)
Esther was not very God-fearing. She was willing to be married to a pagan king and to hide her Jewish ancestory. God's name is not mentioned once in the book of Esther.
Haman was quite the arrogant man. Upset that Mordecai won't show him respect, he gets together with his friends and his wife and boasts about how great he (Haman) is. I feel sorry for those listening, particularly his wife, who has to hear her husband brag about how many sons he has.
Wine shows up again when Esther makes her appeal for Xerxes to issue a decree to save the Jews from Haman's plot to destroy them. Esther throws a two-day banquet for just Xerxes and Haman. In each case, "as they were drinking wine", Xerxes asked Esther what request she would like. It seems that Heroditus wasn't exaggerating a whole lot!
I close with this observation: God kept His covenant with the Jews even when they were not keeping their part of the covenant. Great is His faithfulness!