Esther: What an Interesting Book

So many interesting tidbits in the Biblical book of Esther.

• The king of Persia, Xerxes, threw lavish parties, in which the "guests could drink as much as they liked—king's orders!—with waiters at their elbows to refill the drinks."
• Ten or 14 eunuchs are mentioned by name in this book. The palace must've been crawling with emasculated men. I can't imagine a much worse (psychological) fate than to be taken prisoner and made into an eunuch.
  
• Queen Vashti was a babe.
• The Medo-Persian Empire was quite male-dominated.
• Apparently when the King decided to put away his wife, he had the right to bring in all the young virgin girls he could find and "test" their suitability as a new queen. This test seems to me to be a night of sex.
• Esther was one of these virgins, and apparently spending the night with the King was an honor, even if it meant having only one night of sex in her life and then living in a harem with other women the rest of her life, as Esther and her cousin Mordecai conspired to avoid saying anything that might spoil her chances at the opportunity to become queen.
• Esther was raised by Mordecai after the death of her parents, but even when she was no longer under his roof, she did as he said.
• Mordecai stuck to his principles, rather than doing the "In" thing.
• "An order written in the king's name and sealed with his signet ring is irrevocable". An edict was sent out in the King's name, calling for the destruction of all Jews. Because of Esther's actions, a second edict went out allowing the Jews to take up arms and defend themselves. This second edict could not revoke the first, so it provided the means for the Jews to defend themselves, which turned to the advantage of the Jews.
• The date set for the destruction of the Jews was determined by lot, or the pur. This same date is when the Jews were allowed to defend themselves, and became a great day for the Jews, worthy of celebration as an established holiday. Thus was born the Purim Festival.
• The king allowed just the Jews living in the city of Susa a second day of "defense" against their enemies, and thus the Purim Festival became a two-day affair rather than a one-day affair, celebrated the day after the anniversary of the day chosen by lot, and the day after the extra day of "defense".
• The Purim Festival became a national holiday for the Jews. Notice that it, like Hannakuh, were not instituted by God, but by humans. Notice also that Jesus celebrated Hannakuh (and can be presumed to have celebrated Purim). Thus, even though Christmas is not a Bible-ordained holiday, I personally have little issue with Christians celebrating it and attaching some religious significance to it.
  
• Apparently the average person in the Empire was literate, being able to read the King's edict postings.
• When Esther balked at risking her life to approach the king in an attempt to save the Jews from slaughter, Mordecai made this fascinating statement:

If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.

• The book of Esther does not directly mention God. (Neither does Song of Songs.)
• Fasting appears to have been a significant activity in ancient times, particularly in conjunction with facing a difficult decision or trial.
• Again, at the end of this book, we see the author of Biblical material referring to extra-Biblical sources. This to me has some significance in our understanding of inspiration. I remember reading once a saying that has stuck with me for years: "If it's true, it doesn't need to be inspired." I'm less interested in arguing what is inspired and what inspiration means, than in simply determining if the text is accurate and reliable, which I conclude the Bible to be. With this view, I'm no longer bothered by the differences in detail from one Gospel account to the other; these differences attest to the reality of the event. It's similar to how a police detective might view accounts of a crime given by two different witnesses; if the accounts are exactly identical, they become highly suspect, whereas if the accounts differ slightly in various details, they corroborate each other as being seen and remembered from two slightly different viewpoints. This leads me to highly respect the accuracy of the Bible, while allowing for minor perceptual "issues".

All in all, I found the book of Esther to be an enlightening read.