God's Providence In The Book Of Esther

By Roger Henri Trepanier

The book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where there are no references to God. The reason for this is that God chose to show His working out of events by means of His Providence instead, which is the outworking of His Almightiness and Sovereignty in the everyday affairs on earth as unseen behind the scene! At the same time, the book still remains practical and heartwarming for our day!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Henri Trepanier
• Release date: Nov 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005017217

Roger Henri Trepanier

Roger Henri Trepanier is an evangelist, author, and counselor, who has been serving God on his field of service since 1999. One hundred and seven books have been published so far in five different series, all available in print format and as an eBook for any type of eBook reader. He is a widower with three adopted children, all now married.The author's two websites have been closed. To access the author's books, please type, "Roger Henri Trepanier, books" in any search engine. All the author's books are available in print and ebook formats for all devices.

Book preview

The Word Of God Library

God’s Providence

In The Book Of Esther

Copyright 2020 by Roger Henri Trepanier

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2020 by Roger Henri Trepanier

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. An exception is granted to a reviewer who wishes to quote a brief passage or two as part of a public review of this book.

Scripture taken from

THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

This book is dedicated to Donna Hales, a sister in Christ, and a good friend to the ministry:

The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

CONTENTS

Introduction

God’s Providence In The Book Of Esther

Chapter One

1:1-22

Chapter Two

2:1-23

Chapter Three

3:1-15

Chapter Four

4:1-17

Chapter Five

5:1-14

Chapter Six

6:1-14

Chapter Seven

7:1-10

Chapter Eight

8:1-17

Chapter Nine

9:1-32

Chapter Ten

10:1-3

Addendum A

The four ages of time

Addendum B

The two comings from Heaven to earth of God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ

Addendum C

A practical example of the use of the book of Esther in our own day!

Addendum D

For those who may not as yet know God

The next book

End page

INTRODUCTION

This is the fifteenth book in the series titled, The Word of God Library. God is leading His servant to have a few commentaries published, which are the result of forty years plus of study, combined with practical experience. And while these commentaries are expository in nature (that is, explained in some detail), they are still intended to be devotional, heartwarming, and as practical as possible, to help believers live out their faith in these last days of the present age.

Please note that the Biblical text of the book of Esther has been included as part of the commentary, and has been broken down into smaller sections, each beginning with an italicized heading for the benefit of the reader. The Bible version being used in this book is the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition, which is the version that God led His servant to start using in 2002.

It should also be noted that there are four sections to the Addendum at the back of the book. Addendum A is a brief outline of the four ages of time; Addendum B is a brief outline of the two separate comings from Heaven to earth of God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, in time; in Addendum C, we have, A practical example of the use of the book of Esther in our own day; and then in Addendum D, we have a gospel presentation for how one may have a personal relationship with God, for any readers who might not yet have this vital relationship.

What should also be mentioned before closing this Introduction is that after completing 21 years of formal education and then spending almost 28 years working in Project Engineering and Management in the Corporate offices of two large utilities, God called His servant as a non-denominational evangelist in early 1999, and then sent him out over two thousand miles, away from family and friends, to the place of service God assigned, which is where His servant has been and is still serving Him as evangelist, author, and counselor. The author is a widower with three adopted children, all now married with a family of their own.

Please note the two websites listed below, which have been established for the purpose of interacting with readers and for gospel ministry:

http://www.pilgrimpathwaypublications.com

http://servantofmosthigh.com

And now my prayer is that God will richly bless you as you read this book, and greatly minister to every need in your life, as only God can! To Him be all praise, honor, and glory, with thanksgiving, both now and forevermore! Amen.

CHAPTER ONE

Esther 1:1-22

As we begin our study of the Book of Esther, two preliminary comments are necessary

As we begin our look at this important and eternal word from God contained in His Book of Esther, we should note that of the 66 books given to mankind by God, the Book of Esther is the only book that has NO MENTION OF GOD AT ALL, in that the word God, Lord, or Lord God, or any other derivative of God’s Name does not occur. What this means then, since this is still God’s word given to mankind, is that in the Book of Esther we have God speaking to us by His PROVIDENCE. And for the purpose of this book, we will be viewing God’s Providence as God working in the background to accomplish His purposes through people, events, places, and circumstances so as to outwork His eternal plan for His creation in the four ages of time. And so, even though God is not mentioned, nevertheless His fingerprints are over all events that we see occurring.

Esther 1:1-4, the banquet of 180 days for all of king Ahasuerus’ important officials of the Persian and Median empire

At Esther 1:1-4, God gives us the important information that we need to grasp as to the time and place of events that we will see unfold in the book of Esther, there reading, [1] Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, [2] in those days as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne which was at the citadel in Susa, [3] in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his princes and attendants, the army officers of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of his provinces being in his presence. [4] And he displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty for many days, 180 days.

We note from verse 1:1 here that the first thing God wants us to know is that what He is about to disclose to us took place in the days of Ahasuerus. And since God knows that there are more than one Ahasuerus known in the history of mankind outside His word, the Bible, He is quick to add that the one He has in view is, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces. In other words, this was the extent of the territory over which this Ahasuerus ruled as king.

This information will not have much relevance for us until we also grasp that in God’s book of Daniel, He prophesied four world-encompassing empires of men in unbelief in time, the first being that of Babylon, with its capital at the city of Babylon; the second being that of Persia and Media, with its capital at Susa; the third being that of Greece, with its capital at Athens; and then the fourth being the Roman empire, with its capital at the city of Rome. Since we are told at verse 1:3 above that the army officers of Persia and Media were in attendance at the citadel (that is, the palace of the king) in Susa, which was in Persia (present day Iran), we therefore know that it was over the world-encompassing empire of Persia and Media that this Ahasuerus ruled over.

We are also to be aware that this Ahasuerus is also mentioned by name in God’s book of Ezra and in God’s book of Daniel. If we look at that occurrence of Ahasuerus in God’s book of Ezra, which is at Ezra 4:6, we there read, Now in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. The they in view here were the enemy of the Jews in and around Jerusalem, who were objecting to the Jews, who had returned from exile in Babylon and were now rebuilding their temple in Jerusalem. And since Jerusalem was in the province of Judea, as part of the empire of Persia and Media at this time, these people were therefore writing to the king of Persia and Media, which we see was Ahasuerus, to complain to him about what the Jews were doing, in the hope that he would stop the work of the Jews rebuilding their temple in Jerusalem.

It is important to note here that God does not give us any record that Ahasuerus did stop the work, which has a bearing on what we see occurring in the book of Esther. And so, at Ezra 4:7, we see the enemies of the Jews at Jerusalem wait until the next king over the empire of Persia and Media comes on the throne, Artaxerxes, and then they write to him to stop the work, and as we see from Ezra 4:17-21, he complies and issues a decree that the work of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem should be stopped.

If we now look at the other occurrence of king Ahasuerus outside God’s book of Esther, we notice that it is at Daniel 9:1, where we read, In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. The important information that we are given here is that Ahasuerus, that we have in view here in the book of Esther, was the father of the Darius, with our also learning that both Ahasuerus and his son were from the Media portion of the empire.

And when we read above that Darius was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, this is a reference to Daniel 5, where we see God tell the king of the world-encompassing empire of Babylon what we read at verse 5:28, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians, which we then see from Daniel 5:30,31 occurred the very same night, [30] That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. [31] So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.

So what happened here is that Darius, who was then over the Medes, was appointed by Cyrus, who was over the Persians, to be over the province of Babylon in the city of Babylon, while Cyrus then ruled over the whole of the empire at the time of this conquest, ruling from Susa as the capital. Then when Ahasuerus came to power over the whole of the empire of Persia and Media after Cyrus, he would have ruled the then known world from Susa, as we read above at Esther 1:2.

Before leaving Darius, we should note that after Darius came to power over the whole empire of Persia and Media after Artaxerxes, that he then did his utmost to find the original decree of Cyrus authorizing the work of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem in the first place (noting Ezra 1:1-4), and then allowed the work at Jerusalem to continue, with the rebuilding of the temple being completed during his reign (noting Ezra 4:24 to Ezra 6:15). The import of mentioning this here is that since Darius is Ahasuerus’ son, then we see that both father and son were not haters of the Jews! In our modern terminology, we can say that they were not anti-Semitic!

And since we have seen above at Ezra 4:6 that Ahasuerus was ruling over the world empire of Persia and Media means that the book of Esther can be dated