What a wonderful scene in God's redemptive turnaround drama!!
King Ahasuerus and Haman attended Queen Esther's second banquet.
It was only when King Ahasuerus asked for the third time,
"Queen Esther, what is your request? I will grant it.
Even if you ask for half the kingdom, it will be given to you,"
that she revealed her request to him.
Her request was, "Spare my life and the lives of my people."
The reason she made this plea was because she and her people,
the Jews, had been sold to be annihilated.
King Ahasuerus then asked Queen Esther, "Who is he?
Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?"
Esther replied, "The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman"
(Esther 7:1-6).
As I meditated these words,
I found the events of Esther chapter 6 fascinating,
situated between Queen Esther's first banquet (5:4-5) and the second banquet (7:1).
The reason being, in Esther chapter 6, King Ahasuerus begins to honor Mordecai (1-11),
while Haman begins to suffer humiliation (v. 13).
Clearly, Haman was elated when he left Queen Esther's first banquet in chapter 5,
because he was the only one invited along with the king.
Moreover, Queen Esther invited him again the next day to join the king (5:9, 12).
However, Haman's satisfaction was marred by seeing Mordecai the Jew
sitting at the king's gate, and none of his wealth, many children,
or the honors bestowed upon him by the king (v. 11) brought him joy.
Consequently, he followed the advice of his wife Zeresh and all his friends
and had a gallows seventy-five feet high built,
intending to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it (vv. 13-14).
Yet, in Esther chapter 6, we see King Ahasuerus beginning to honor Mordecai,
whom Haman had wanted to hang on the high gallows.
Haman believed that he was the person whom the king desired to honor (6:6),
thinking there was no one else but himself.
However, when he learned that the person
the king intended to honor was Mordecai, not him,
he was so ashamed that he covered his head and hurried home, unable to lift his face.
There, he recounted to his wife Zeresh and all his friends
everything that had happened to him (vv. 12-13).
His wise friends then remarked that this marked the beginning of his downfall (v. 13).
Meanwhile, as this unfolded, the king's eunuchs arrived
and quickly took Haman to Queen Esther's second banquet (v. 14), where he attended (7:1).
Another interesting point is that King Ahasuerus
asked Queen Esther three times what her request was (5:3, 6; 7:2).
As I meditated on these words,
I recalled the scene in John 21 where the resurrected Jesus
appeared to his disciples for the third time (John 21:14).
Specifically, I remembered how Jesus asked Simon Peter three times,
"Simon, son of John, do you love me?" (vv. 15, 16, 17).
Of course, Jesus asked Peter three times because Peter had denied him three times
(Matthew 26:70, 72, 74).
Therefore, I believe Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?"
to forgive Peter for his three denials and to restore him.
Furthermore, I think Jesus asked Peter three times to give him a mission
["Feed my lambs" (John 21:15), "Take care of my sheep" (v. 16), "Feed my sheep" (v.17)].
As I contemplate these words together,
I've considered that our Lord asks us both "Do you love me?"
and "What is your wish?" three times each.
When I reflect on this, my response would be as follows:
"Lord, you know that I love you" (v. 17), and
“My one wish, Lord, is this alone: To serve Thee all my days,
Then rise to stand before Thy throne And sing Thy deathless praise”
(Hymn "My One Wish, Lord, is This Alone" verse 1).
A third intriguing point is
when King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther for the third time,
"What is your request? I will grant it.
Even if you ask for half the kingdom, it will be given to you."
At that moment, Queen Esther responded,
"Grant me my life and spare my people" (7:2-3).
What makes this interesting is that Queen Esther,
until then, had obediently followed Mordecai's instructions,
refraining from disclosing her identity as a Jew (2:10, 20).
However, at her second banquet, when King Ahasuerus asked her for the third time,
"What is your request? I will grant it," she finally expressed her wish
and plea to save herself and her people, the Jews,
by appealing to the king to spare their lives (7:2-3).
Esther, who had approached the king with the resolve "If I perish, I perish" (4:16),
now pleaded with the king to save her and her people from being annihilated (7:4).
Why did Esther obey Mordecai's instruction and refrain from revealing herself as a Jew
until King Ahasuerus asked her for the third time, "What is your request?"
Clearly, King Ahasuerus had no prior knowledge that Esther was a Jew.
If he had known beforehand, he would likely not have allowed Haman
to issue the decree to annihilate all the Jews in the Persian Empire,
even for Esther whom he loved more than all the other women (2:17)
and found exceedingly delightful (5:2).
He would not have given Haman the authority to carry out his plan
to destroy all the Jews (3:6).
When I meditate this, it strikes me how in the divine drama of salvation,
God used Esther at the precise moment when she disclosed her request to the king
and revealed her Jewish identity.
It seems like a perfect timing orchestrated by God.
And the moment when Queen Esther spoke her request to King Ahasuerus
is indeed a remarkable turning point in God's dramatic salvation narrative.
I consider it so because when Esther made her plea to the king
during the situation where he and Haman attended her second banquet,
she asked the king to spare her and her people's lives.
It was during this banquet that Haman, who had plotted to kill them,
was present along with the king.
So, when King Ahasuerus asked, "Where is he?"
Esther replied, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman" (7:5-6).
What a wonderful scene in God's redemptive turnaround drama!!