Esther doesn’t come off as entirely brave, as she says that troubling the king wouldn’t have been worth it if her people had been merely sold as slaves and not planned for destruction. However, after several days, she does finally speak up, and that was definitely something. It was very hard for her to do, or it wouldn’t have taken four days to do it after she had determined to. I can appreciate how hard it is to open your mouth sometimes, though the king repeatedly helps out by asking her what she wants.

The king comes off entirely fickle. He has his right-hand man killed without giving him a chance to speak a word in his defense. It had been the king, after all, who agreed to this plan to kill the Jews.

The servant who speaks up about the gallows is a hero. The turn of fates for the Jews, for Mordecai, and for Haman is in progress. It started with the dream perhaps. Though in reality, it started with Esther being the orphan child needing her uncle to take her in and in Mordecai’s faith to stand up for what’s right in refusing to bow to someone other than God. This was all long in play, long planned out perfectly by God. Not that He’s playing a game of chess with our lives, but He knows our choices before we make them, so He can put us in circumstances knowing what our choice will be because He can see the future. Don’t work too hard trying to figure out God’s mind. Just know that He knows. He’s all-knowing. He knew the end before the story began.

It was so long planned out that it was a culmination of a stand-off between Saul and Agag, as Mordecai was of the line of Benjamin, like Saul, and Haman was of the line of Agag. God had commanded Saul to devote everything to destruction, but he kept alive the king of the Amalekites, Agag. Now, centuries later, the Agagite finally sees his destruction because of a Benjamite. The circle is closed.