Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verses 1-9 - The ironic timing of these events (at least as far as Haman is concerned) is interesting. God can orchestrate things down to the second when needed.
If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.
If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.
Your Questions:
- "In 3:12-13, it says in the first month the edict was written, and in the 12th month, it would take place. I don't know anything about the size of the kingdom, but obviously they only had their feet and horses to take them around to deliver the message. Do we know how long it took, or whether they just wanted to give folks 11 months to "prepare to die," (I realize it also gave time for Esther to talk to the king), or were the months not the same as they are now? I do see (in Chapter 2) this is in the 12th year of his reign, but Esther was given the 12 months of beauty treatments and presented to Xerxes in the 7th year of his reign, so I guess she just hung out for five years, as God prepared her? It's all very confusing time-wise." - It is confusing. Here's the timetable as best as I understand it:
1. Esther becomes queen in the 7th year of Xerxes' rule (2:16-17).
2. She had been queen about 5 years when Haman pursued his plot to destroy the Jews (3:7).
3. When the king agreed to Haman's plot to destroy the Jews, they cast a lot to select the specific time to carry out the genocide. The lot selected a time about twelve months away (3:7). Of course, from the king's perspective, it had to be a time frame that would allow for getting the word out to the various parts of the kingdom, but I think that was divinely chosen to be a little bit longer than necessary for that in order to allow Esther time to pursue rescuing the Jews.
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